Cardinal Love
I host many song birds,
but never enough.
I steal them from neighbors
with lavish tax-relief offers,
free food
and housing
in exchange for their relocation
and entertainment.
I love them all
but especially red cardinals,
him with her.
They hang and fly together.
An integrity couple
more than the robins
and sparrows
and bluejays
and finches I have flinchingly noticed.
I'm not so sure how mourning doves might compare
with red rapturous cardinals,
him flashy patriarchal
and her graceful matriarchal
sharing worms and seeds
with a bilaterally grateful kiss.
Sometimes,
watching them carry on
from tree
to garden sea
to nested night to be,
I feel alone
longing to belong
mutually beloved,
paired
and not so autonomously impaired.
Kissing oneself
and my own past life investments
in mistrust of goodbye
without farewell
is better than no healing kiss at all,
yet falls awesomely short
of cardinal couple celebration kisses.
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