Borrowed Bio

Where we’d recently lain,
exchanging a kiss,
stork consorted with crane,
limpkin with ibis.

Was this as much wedding
as there would ever be,
the fowls’ foot-webbing,
the identificatory

ring around a throat?
Exchange of earth and air:
not a vow but a vote
of confidence a feather

might tip by a single scale ...    
That one’s a raconteur,
so much salt in his tale;
this one’s a countertenor,

lilting above the feast.
The archon of his hectare
 — spotted — spotted least.
Here’s a little heckler ...    

penciled seagull in the margin.
Following line by line
the path you took, I imagine
no print so fine.