Two Birds on A Wire

Two birds on a wire at random one day met
When, perchance, they stopped for the same sunset.
In the quickest of moments, with alacrity,
The two birds, quite abstractedly--
In all the world, on the same stretch of wire--
Engendered the same ephemeral desire:
To see art in nature; nature in art;
To live in the moment, for the most part.

Two tiny actors! on life's cosmic set,
Expressing, for mere expression's sake--
Living, as they will, a temporal vignette,
Making of their lives everything they could make--
One said to the other, "The pinks! The blues!"
The other replied, "The shades! The hues!"
Enchanted, they beamed, till the sun did depart,
Though not without leaving them glowing of heart.

"The sun," he began, "may now be gone,
And the cold, distant darkness may now beset us,
And those few golden moments have now moved on--
But, hark! I promise I'll never forget us!
I say, I'm all joyless, now the sun's gone away,
For it's proof the day really does regret us.
The warmth, so fair, is fain not to stay--
But, hark! I swear I'll never forget us!"

"Be calm," she said, "my lovely new friend:
All light and warmth are but passing pleasures;
The ebbing brilliance doesn't mark an end:
But another beginning in endless measure.
Look on and see: the crescent moon,
A fractured pearl in the sky's dark pool;
Mother Nature's gentlest, most unassuming boon,
Hung aloft a star-necklace, a most precious jewel."

"Pray, how to be happy! when all light is lost!
When by pedigree the annals they disappear!"
"Pray, how to be sad! when at no large cost
We fly on, and keep living, year after year!"
"The sun, as it flees, it discourages me!"
"The moon, returning, it encourages me!"
"Your light, would that I could always see!"
"My moonlight, in absence of sun, is yours, free!"

---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------

This all may disappear, it's true;
But what have we to complain of that?
Unbolt the heavens, the sky unglue:
I'll still wear my opera hat.