This poem is called "Neck And Neck."
And it's a poem that I like to read at a University,
because it came out of conversations
with students about unfortunate ambiguities,
like the kind of ambiguity that invites a misreading.
So, anyway, the first line of the poem is italicized,
and then ambiguity presents itself.
Well, "Neck And Neck."
Cranes in the sky.
Sandhill or derrick tower?
Thomas Derrick was a gallows architect
And executioner, 3,000 persons.
He took up this work
In lieu of being put to death himself for rape,
And eventually he beheaded
The very Earl who'd pardoned him.
"Pardoned" here meaning, let him live as death.
Three full strokes of the heading ax.
The Earl of Essex
Had assayed a coup against Elizabeth,
Sought, they said, to depose and slay.
Sandhills wear a scarlet cap--
Well, more Venetian mask or hood--
From which emerge their steely amber eyes.
They mate for life.
Sometimes their lives last 37 years.
I have a pendant necklace.
Sterling birds bent beak to beak.
A heart shaped space between their arching necks.
I've never found a photo of such mawkishness.
It must be all the jeweler's vision of true love.
Still, they are good birds, unmurderous.