God imagined music
and so fashioned an ear
within a warbler’s skull.
Imagining blizzards, a landscape of drifts
blown against sugar maples and spruce,
God heard a snowy owl
call to its mate.
From the willow ptarmigan God learned to disguise himself.
From the false eyes of an American kestrel, God learned how to seem
as if he is always
watching.
Everyone knows birds are made to fly,
so God created bantam roosters, Rhode Island Reds,
ostriches and emus, emperor penguins and rockhoppers.
Watching a clutch of teen-age girls watching
a peacock drag its tail through dust,
God understood that humans long
for astonishment, brilliantly blue and green tail feathers
fanned open, patterned like eyes.
They would wait and wait and wait to see it.
Creating the mourning dove, God
had not yet felt grief.
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