Chinese Proverb Sent by Worried Friend
by Jane Yolen

"If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come."

    Hell, if it works, I will rototill the ventricle
    and dig down to the aorta,
    plant the largest damned baobab I can find,
    set strobe lights on the tree's trunk,
    put out feeding stations along each green bough.

    That bird can be as insistent a singer
    as the Carolina wren on my back deck,
    the one I've dubbed Elvis
    and sometimes Billy Ray Cyrus,
    because he hollers and struts
    every morning just before breakfast,
    long as he's sure I'm listening,
    me and my hunk o', hunk o' achy breaky heart.