Mourning Doves

Just why they chose our roost to nest

is no more explicable than the chance,

bits and ends of life which they find

to fill the space which we lose to them.

There is nothing glorious in the habit;

last summer two finches, all bristled red

with the consuming passion of the season,

also chose the same space for their brood.

But their coming and going was no more

inspiring to our capacity to gawk and wonder,

than their own stares which seemed unfamiliar

even after we had given names to each.

This then was the reason we argued

for their sudden flight away from the nest;

they both had been uncivil from the start,

. and no doubt their passions too had waned.

So the appearance of these two doves

came when we had since hardened

our emotions to nature's caprice-

they too would find the space cramped.

Thus, their persistence was not remarkable,

and our expectations were without hope;

and each breaking day we greeted them

with the callous stare they accorded us.