The best place to hear it? Not in the beauty shop, that warren
of backcombing and flaming hearsay; nor the church house
where prayer requests stand in for scandal. Do not listen
for it in the garages where men gather by twos and threes
gripping their coffee cups and old grudges; or in the Dollar
Store where old couples block the aisles comparing
ailments and dog-tired young women run in for cheap diapers
while their men wait for them, smoking, in idling cars.
You won’t hear it the grocery store either, as aggravated
shoppers fume into their phones while stalking the aisles.
The best place—just listen—the best place is before good
daylight when the mockingbird practices his scales,
when the redbirds wake and cheer each other to the day’s work:
chipping seed, ignoring the propaganda of jaybirds and crows.