I need you to teach me how to attract fall migratory birds,
whose names, plumage and markings
you must tell me, and the kinds of seed or suet, the height of feeder
or if they will want to take the chance, peck the ground
where everything green and lasting drowned
this summer
from the rains that moved in from Alabama
and Florida.
I will need you to answer your land line,
which is all I have to connect you by
talk to me long enough in your steadiness
so that if I forget (and I will forget) the chirps and trills
your voice will come to me
still.
