WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.780 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.780 --> 00:00:04.210 align:middle line:90% This last poem-- 00:00:04.210 --> 00:00:05.585 align:middle line:84% I realized I have a lot of birds. 00:00:05.585 --> 00:00:08.000 align:middle line:90% It's the last bird poem. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:11.690 align:middle line:90% It's called Wildlife. 00:00:11.690 --> 00:00:15.530 align:middle line:84% Of course, my sister noticed the owl in the road. 00:00:15.530 --> 00:00:18.720 align:middle line:84% And that it was alive, injured, not dead. 00:00:18.720 --> 00:00:20.100 align:middle line:90% Wounded by a truck. 00:00:20.100 --> 00:00:24.750 align:middle line:84% Probably having swooped, focused on vole or frog. 00:00:24.750 --> 00:00:28.440 align:middle line:84% And somehow then was grazed or worse, not crushed, 00:00:28.440 --> 00:00:31.400 align:middle line:90% left flightless. 00:00:31.400 --> 00:00:32.729 align:middle line:90% She collected it. 00:00:32.729 --> 00:00:34.430 align:middle line:90% Called the owl people. 00:00:34.430 --> 00:00:37.070 align:middle line:84% Delivered him, male they said, to see 00:00:37.070 --> 00:00:40.950 align:middle line:84% what they, with their deft discerning hands, could do. 00:00:40.950 --> 00:00:46.250 align:middle line:84% No fractures, they told her, but damage to both eyes. 00:00:46.250 --> 00:00:49.190 align:middle line:84% My sister called the maximum allowable number 00:00:49.190 --> 00:00:52.340 align:middle line:84% of follow up times, each requiring 00:00:52.340 --> 00:00:56.000 align:middle line:84% a donation towards rescue in general, though quickly they 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:57.690 align:middle line:90% let her bypass the paywall. 00:00:57.690 --> 00:00:58.860 align:middle line:90% A kindness. 00:00:58.860 --> 00:01:02.760 align:middle line:84% My sister, whose husband today for the first time was baffled, 00:01:02.760 --> 00:01:06.120 align:middle line:84% illegible, unsure how to sign a check. 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:11.210 align:middle line:84% Who also just asked her to mark his shoes L and R, as they've 00:01:11.210 --> 00:01:13.430 align:middle line:90% been hurting his feet. 00:01:13.430 --> 00:01:15.830 align:middle line:84% My sister, whose best friend's husband 00:01:15.830 --> 00:01:19.020 align:middle line:84% died last weekend accidentally skiing into a tree. 00:01:19.020 --> 00:01:23.310 align:middle line:84% My stunned sister, the seer through of beloveds, 00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:26.520 align:middle line:84% noticed the owl undone in the road. 00:01:26.520 --> 00:01:30.840 align:middle line:84% She placed him in a box, drove him to another state, Maine. 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:33.930 align:middle line:84% She's the dinner deliverer for widowed Beth Ann. 00:01:33.930 --> 00:01:36.020 align:middle line:84% And apparently now also on it goes 00:01:36.020 --> 00:01:39.720 align:middle line:84% for her funeral planner for some other guy, her husband's uncle, 00:01:39.720 --> 00:01:40.400 align:middle line:90% I think. 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:44.730 align:middle line:84% Interment, insurance proxies, doctors, attorneys. 00:01:44.730 --> 00:01:48.300 align:middle line:84% In fact, safety, and sharpies, and lunch. 00:01:48.300 --> 00:01:52.670 align:middle line:90% Never an hour of solitude. 00:01:52.670 --> 00:01:55.700 align:middle line:84% Three weeks the owl was nursed and observed, 00:01:55.700 --> 00:02:00.180 align:middle line:84% his eyes deep in an eddy of beige-brindled feathers. 00:02:00.180 --> 00:02:05.790 align:middle line:84% Onyx irises taking a rest, if he knew he was safe. 00:02:05.790 --> 00:02:10.729 align:middle line:84% His narrow beak like a petal of forsythia. 00:02:10.729 --> 00:02:13.200 align:middle line:84% She'd said he was the size of a rugby ball, 00:02:13.200 --> 00:02:16.310 align:middle line:84% a sport played Sundays on the field beside the road 00:02:16.310 --> 00:02:19.490 align:middle line:84% where he was hit, where my sister and her husband 00:02:19.490 --> 00:02:21.290 align:middle line:90% sometimes walk. 00:02:21.290 --> 00:02:24.680 align:middle line:84% Then the owlists invited her to come back 00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:27.450 align:middle line:84% and to release him for their feeds. 00:02:27.450 --> 00:02:30.860 align:middle line:84% They made an inspirational video, though little, 00:02:30.860 --> 00:02:32.970 align:middle line:90% little did they know. 00:02:32.970 --> 00:02:37.680 align:middle line:84% She holds that owl like a catcher's mitt, a bride's 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:38.610 align:middle line:90% bouquet. 00:02:38.610 --> 00:02:41.140 align:middle line:84% His speckled back against her stomach. 00:02:41.140 --> 00:02:45.160 align:middle line:84% He directs an implacable look at the world or into the camera. 00:02:45.160 --> 00:02:48.270 align:middle line:84% His legs, I realize, are tucked, or more 00:02:48.270 --> 00:02:51.640 align:middle line:84% than that, constrained in her work-gloved hands. 00:02:51.640 --> 00:02:55.300 align:middle line:84% Well, long handler's gloves that protect her forearms, 00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:56.800 align:middle line:90% her wrists. 00:02:56.800 --> 00:03:00.430 align:middle line:84% She stands in a snowy, open field. 00:03:00.430 --> 00:03:04.930 align:middle line:84% There are old footprints there, filled in by later snows. 00:03:04.930 --> 00:03:09.250 align:middle line:84% And then she gently boosts her arms and opens them. 00:03:09.250 --> 00:03:13.380 align:middle line:84% And out and up he goes, enormous extended. 00:03:13.380 --> 00:03:16.680 align:middle line:90% Her face soft with joy. 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:18.760 align:middle line:90% I watch it over and over. 00:03:18.760 --> 00:03:23.350 align:middle line:84% Yes, the shocking wingspan, talons, muscly legs. 00:03:23.350 --> 00:03:25.890 align:middle line:84% He pumps through what might have been a stumble dip. 00:03:25.890 --> 00:03:29.280 align:middle line:90% And then all flight. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:33.300 align:middle line:84% She loves him in his winter tree. 00:03:33.300 --> 00:03:34.719 align:middle line:90% Thanks. 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:38.142 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:38.142 --> 00:03:44.010 align:middle line:90% 00:03:44.010 --> 00:03:45.700 align:middle line:90% Sally, thank you so much. 00:03:45.700 --> 00:03:47.510 align:middle line:90% So great.