FOR THE BIRDS
James M. Truxell
February 1, 2012
Puritan ornithologists
Peering over half-rimmed glasses of
Disdain for anthropomorphizing -
The Original Sin of their profession -
Assert instead "a temporary truce between
Selfish, competitive individuals"
Rather than a
"Spirited, cooperative partnership"
In explanation of
Avian monogamy.
Ah, yes:
Advancement,
Tenure, and
Fame:
They come not to such
Original sinners.
So, righteously self-assured in their
Neutrality,
They project instead their own,
Completely human,
Very empirical,
Very dry
Theories onto the already
Burdened beast who,
Last midnight,
Continually crossed
Low over the woods and streams,
Honking its solitary, mourning ache:
Calling for his mate.
He had seen her last
(Though not very long)
Just a few hours earlier,
Being dragged away . . .
Ensnared in the undercarriage
Of an Ornithological Society
Research Expedition bus.
© 2012 Another-Fine-Mess.com
(Author's Note: I recently heard a lone Canada goose honking plaintively late at night as it flew over our property and imagined it had become separated from its mate. I Googled 'why geese mate for life' and came upon the entry below. I understand and accept the theory of evolution. Nonetheless, what I read angered me. Hence the poem.)
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/birds/geese-mate-for-life.htm
As nice as it would be to attribute the birds' success to their undying love for one another, it's probably just pure and simple selfishness. In his Second Edition of Ornithology, Frank Gill concludes that monogamous relationships may simply be "a temporary truce between selfish, competitive individuals" rather than a "spirited, cooperative partnership."
