Yet Another (Mocking) Bird Poem

Son sends his best: "I was passing the time with Skye this weekend when we saw a mockingbird singing from the peak of a roof. It’s repertoire is mind-blowing, man. I heard blue jays, chickadees, crows, red-wings, you name it. So I googled the bird and discovered some cool facts. The mockingbird can sing the songs of up to 200 different species. And so accurately that scientific measurement cannot tell the difference."

Mockingbird

I saw it singing from the brink
of pitch and sky where rafters run
the roofline; nothing sounds quite like
that bird. I mean it seems like all

the noise of North America
in concert. Even power-driven
rackets, as well as every sharp
song sung since Iroquois came east,

reveal themselves in its report.
And did you hear that three chord blues?
It's more convincing than accounts
I've read in chronicles—and news.

~Son Rivers 2005

"It’s home base is basically these United States of America, the complete lower forty-eight. And you’ve probably seen and heard it but may not know it. If you’ve seen a grayish bird with major white stripes on its wings, bingo! And if you think you’re hearing a symphony of birds in a single tree, it’s probably the mockingbird. In other words, you don’t have to go and buy one. Just look and listen.”