The tree man went a-wandering to climb what he could climb
He very quickly happened on a rather ancient pine
He climbed its hefty branches with exquisite strength and
grace
And when he reached the top he felt the sky upon his face
The bird man went a-twittering among the shy-eyed birds
He learned the whoop and whistle of their wise, flirtatious
words
The birds said, “Bird man, join us in our imitative glee!”
And so he sprouted feathers and flew up into the tree
“Good gracious!” said the tree man. “Is this bird man I see
here?
You’ve shrunk and grown some feathers! How exceptionally
queer!”
The bird man flapped excitedly. “Chirp chirpy chirp!” he
said
But twitters had no meaning in the puzzled tree man’s head
“I see that you’re no longer man,” the climbing fellow quoth
“You speak bird, and I speak man. How vexing for us both!”
The bird man looked with sorry eyes, and closed his pointed
beak
Within their hearts, the two old friends felt lonelyfied and
weak
“I’ll visit you,” the tree man said. “When winter be, I’ll
come.
I’ll bring you seeds and poppy hulls, and cigarettes and
gum.
The tree man went a-climbing then, this time a-climbing down
And took his place within his job within his eggy town.
When winter was, the bird man sat and waited in his tree
He thought, “Chirp chirp!” which meant, of course, “Will
tree man come for me?”
But tree man—oh, the hapless chap!—had broken both his legs
While walking down the stairs he’d slipped upon some gooey
eggs
And so the meeting happened naught; the two friends stayed
at home
In nests of their own fashioning, both weakified, alone
And tree man had bought seeds and hulls, and cigarettes and
gum
But as he couldn’t gift them, he consumed them, one by one.
