We hear the pair beckoning an audience
from a ponderosa pine pinned between
toffee colored cliffs and the syrupy river.
My wife first sees the storybook silhouette
owl: ear tufts, turning head, a wink of wings.
We watch him call and bob, mate replying
higher up, hidden by the foliage discretion.

Two runners stop, drawn by our homage.
We tell them there’s owls up there, a gift
heard in passing but rarely seen given.
Now there is a small band of us, watching
the performance, deserving our applause.
Post-pandemic loners share pellets of news,
our humanity, the sharing of hidden views.

Matthew James Friday is a British born writer and teacher. He has had many poems published in US and international journals. His first chapbook ‘The Residents’ is due to be published by Finishing Line Press in 2024. He has published numerous micro-chapbooks with the Origami Poems Project. Poems are forthcoming in The Potomac Review, New Contrast (South Africa) and The Amsterdam Quarterly (NL). Matthew is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet.