So Many Owls
       

A sudden influx of awesome
strigidae—
small and large night
types have been spotted
asleep in naked
branches, a curious migration
blind to growing fame.

Some names: saw-whet
(the tiny one) and barred.
A screech was photographed
inside a cherry cloud
of exploded cardinal. And one great
horned was seen

dozing outside the zoo.
A bumper crop
of mice, perhaps, or paucity of prey
elsewhere, some territorial
disruption or dispute
has brought them here
to multiply

on devices
and in the imagination
as they disappear from Earth.
Omens of anything, bright eyes
unlit, perched
on the winter porch
of hawk and falcon:
silently, they gather
disciples.

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Copyright © 2021 Ellen Kaufman All rights reserved
from Double-Parked, with Tosca
Able Muse Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission