After five years it’s a vague harassment,
your name in a stranger’s mouth, my ear,
a soft punch up from the gurney. Still—
slight birds wake me with such repetitions:
the branch point adjustment of throat valves, labia
in tension, not warm, not cold-blooded. A liquid resonation,
two resonations, a final exhalation of atmosphere.
What are birds? You once asked.
They are just birds.
No, what class are they?
You mean like vertebrates?
No, like – Ornithers. Ornithitius. Ornithologicals.
They are just birds.
A search proves it. According to birds,
they are their own. And, like the calls of debt
collectors the birds in our yard persist.
So, we acknowledge the definition
of loss: yes, that’s what that is. Brief
morning trill of what you died owing.

Syrinx: the bird voice box, located at the branch point between the trachea and bronchi and containing vibrating tissues called labia, in songbirds capable of making two sounds at once via independent muscle control (https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/birdsong/)