Squirrels And Birds And Fish

Birdhouse, backyard, San Francisco, made by Lea Ann Roddan, 2019. Photo by author.

Though there's no scientific proof that Time exists, I believe Time is when a moment first tenses up and becomes a minute, and a minute then becomes an hour, and an hour becomes a whole day, and so on until one's life is consumed by either fire or ice or cancer of the brain or some other muscular or cardio-vascular dystrophy which is improper to discuss in polite company.

Time is not aware of itself, nor are animals aware of time; we upper mammals are the only ones who seem to think at all about time, thinking about it obsessively to the point that thinking about time is how we live our lives. A squirrel darts across the road that a friend and I are driving, barely avoiding our car, and disappears into the brush. My friend says, "that squirrel has a life expectancy of 12 days." I don't respond, not knowing whether this is true or whether he is joking. At home I Google the life expectancy of a squirrel and find it's at least one year, and that a red squirrel may live up to 10 years "in the wild", though what 'in the wild' means is unclear. I saw that squirrel barely escape the front wheels of a large car doing at least 45 mph on an urban street, and I believe that in that moment the squirrel was quite aware of time, more aware than he (or she) was aware of his or her's life expectancy or whether he or she was a gray squirrel or red squirrel or a ground squirrel or a San Bernardino Flying squirrel.

WC Williams' poem 'To Waken an Old Lady'' connects the higher and lower animal kingdoms: Old age is/a flight of small/cheeping birds/skimming/bare trees/above a snow glaze.' I've quoted only part of the poem; there are 12 more lines to it. The lady is old and laying in bed. Dr. Williams, making a housecall, must wake her to administer to her needs. 

I've read Williams' poem at least 20 times, perhaps more. I re-read it just a few moments ago; that the poem ends in birdsong has never made a bigger impact than it did just now. Man, creator of time, must be somewhere down below on the chart of those creatures loved by god. Birds are first, that is higher in the birth order, having shown us how to fly and to consume no more than can be expelled without great harm to others. Fish live secretly, which is also a form of protection.