Owls Song

Last night Owls reminded Sal which conversation matters mainly: the one where she did speak of them, or the one where she did speak and be hear directly.

Owls Song
Yvonne Mokihana Calizar

They chortled
Just beyond
The lit wagon
Close enough
To stir us
Properly.

Not much
Past dusk
I chimed
Pushed open
a cloister
"Don't hunt
those bunnies."
He said,
"They came
to thank me."
The strings downed
Mean they will
hunt.

There are no hens across the orchard, Sam had secreted them away; without telling any of the women who have not tended them, or closed them into coop at night, nor witnessed the generations of rats who fed on the grains. 

That afternoon Sal did watch Sam pushing the garden cart through the orchard. But only while the owls sang did she know it was the net of strings that criss crossed the sky above the hen house and the once- filled duck pens Sam hauled away. 

They do watch, and do talk to us directly. It is our ears for hearing their song that must be re-tuned.