Owls

Last night two stubby owls flew into the white oak,
the white oak in my front yard. First one, followed
immediately by the second snub-nosed bird.

I was seeing a friend to her car, and pointed,
"Look. Do you see the screech owls?"
She saw them fly - only then - one then the next.

"How did you know it was a screech owl though,
it's so dark, and they didn't whinny?"
I didn't say I might know them.

They could be the same birds that you and I saw
on one of our walks, the pair hovering over each other
on that Live Oak branch which overhung Oaklawn St.

It was a block away from here, a block and two years.
How long do owls live, how long do pairs remain together?
To my friend I just shrugged.