Birdsong

We have a very discreet bandwidth of super-sensitive hearing between 2.5 and 5 kilohertz

… is there something that matches our peak hearing human sensitivity? Indeed,

there’s a perfect match: birdsong.     --Gordon Hempton  

I want to live here, I always have, 

but I was so often alone, playing in attics

or clinging to the legs of trees. I grew,

and began to endanger myself in the ways

I had been endangered, and there was never 

a conversation about this, or if there was

it was below the frequency of birdsong 

so I did not hear it. Now, I want to destroy 

all presumption that we evolved toward 

the human voice when we could have adapted 

to birdsong. I wonder, is there a measure 

of softness like frequency, a kilohertz 

of softness? I would listen differently, 

aware of the change. But, as it turns out, 

we just couldn’t flourish in abundance. 

I don’t know how else to say this … 

sometimes a lone cardinal remains at dusk, 

and sometimes I know before looking. 

The clouds are so low here; I want to know

when they will touch me.