The mockingbirds, that pair, arrive,
one, and the other; glossily perch,
respond, respond, branch to branch.
One stops, and flies. The other flies.
Arrives, dips, in a blur of wings,
lights, is joined. Sings. Sings.

Actually, there are birds galore:
bowlegged blackbirds brassy as crows;
elegant ibises with inelegant cows;
hummingbirds' stutter on air;
tilted over the sea, a man-of-war
in a long arc without a feather's stir.

* * *

"Of Pairs" (excerpt) from In the Crevice of Time: New and Collected Poems by Josephine Jacobsen. Copyright © 1995. Reprinted with the permission of The Johns Hopkins University Press.