Hummer

The ambiance was faintly poignant, familiar to the conversations we have with those we love most; mingling with joy awareness of pain that comes with separation.

Amidst the deluges I had failed to note his feeder had become depleted. His appearance near the glass door reminded me to check and I brought it in for a good cleaning and refill, I put it out and sat for my evening meal. There he was once more, feathers all fluffed. We began to converse. He wiggled in response to my voice. We spoke of our long friendship and appreciation for each other.

From my first spring in this house he has been coming each year to the tree limb outside the loft and announcing his arrival from winter quarters in Central America. I fill the feeders and through the summer track visits, always at least one group of young and various interlopers.

This year it seems late for him to be lingering. As we speak of "cabbages and kings" my heart is filled with joy. He nods or shakes his head and fluffs up even more.

Evolved from the cumbersome rumbling dinosaurs this priceless jewel demands only a little nectar and free air to support his flight yet brings the joy of blooming things and his own beauty.

The news brings the words of a "scientist" suggesting efforts to save the panda should be suspended on the basis that it is a weak species. This man is no scientist and he certainly has no understanding of evolution, much less the sacred. Man is incapable of determining any hierarchy of fitness or weakness. Man the meddler!

Dusk is turning to dark and Hummer bolts as if to catch a departing flight. In the empty room the pain of loss expands to poignancy of dread. I think of the tragedy should its most gifted species through venality and ignorance fail to respond to the music and the voices of this unique blue planet.