House Finches and House Sparrows

How boring. The problem,

Or one of them, with names

Is that they excite us

By a suggestiveness

Loosely correlated

With the delights of song

Or reference, at best.

The exquisite chaos

Of house sparrows at dawn

In the hedges, raucous

And joined by the trilling

Of pink-headed finches,

Produces no thrilling

Identification.

Just sparrows. Just finches.

But catch the whistle-wheet

Of hooded orioles

And write that down. There now,

Hooded oriole! Now,

That name sounds like something,

Like something worth naming,

Worth putting in a poem,

Something more specific

Than mere finches’ music.