Now the Bald Eagles Are So Solicitous of Each Other

Something must be up.

You can see how they stick close

 

now, whistle and whistle,

going and coming.

 

Out of the blue,

they’ll dive

 

and drop, claws extended,

into the top of the white pine.

 

It’s how they’ll sit

for a few minutes,

 

one on the bare branch

and facing west,

 

the other on a branch

alongside and facing east,

 

before she hops

down to the nest.

 

It’s how their whistling

rises, circling,

 

then falls back,

settling around them

 

and on us and on our days

and how we have to stop,

 

constantly,

and look out and look up.