Don’t Catch Your Meaning

The cheerfullest sounds
In ponderosas
Are cacophonous
Pygmy nuthatches,

But why human ears
Distinguish cheerful
From mournful in birds
With bird purposes

Isn’t at all clear.
The most modernist
Poem, one hundred years
Published, of this month,

Burbles with birds
As human signals,
Jug jug jug drip drip.
Point your microphone

At the distant past
Of poetry or
At the most recent
Decades, hear the same.

Swivel it around
To catch traditions
From Persia, China,
Indonesia,

Both Americas,
Micronesia,
Polynesia,
Dreamtime, Africa.

Everywhere, the birds
Serve up human hearts,
Characters, morals
As birds calling birds.

Still, the poorwill sounds
Sad in predawn pines
And these nuthatches
Absurdly cheerful.

Too bad you can’t know
If human language
Suggests emotions
To external minds

Not at all to do
With whatever you
Intended when you
Were singing the blues.