Up a Tree, at 81, Wondering

He was 81 when she told him
that she had always wanted a Screech Owl house.
They had been married for 30 years,
which suggested that,
since 30 was a pretty good part of "always",
he had not been listening very well.

"Not a Great Horned Owl?", he asked,
"or maybe a little Elf Owl? Didn't we read
that a couple of Barn Owls will keep you up all night?"

"Nope!" she said. "My mother loved Screech Owls,
and so do I."

There it was, again.
She loved her mother
more than she loved Screech Owls.
He climbed the tree, anyway.

"It should face east," the card in the house said,
although it did not say why.
They settled which was was east
by downloading a compass app.
They lived on a hillside: hillsides ramble.
Even the sun came up oddly
over the shoulders of the rambling hills.

"What if she decided that
she has always liked California Condors?",
he wondered. "What if her mother
loved California Condors?
Am I going to have to climb up a cliff?"

"Maybe this isn't about birds!
Maybe her mother always wondered
what it would be like to live alone.
I that why I am up this tree, at 81?"

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