Mourning dove

I miss the mourning dove that cooed outside my window. 

He was so annoying. I looked up for him when I was outside, 

but I couldn’t see him. My eyes made a bird sitting on a wire 

nervous.I’ve heard that when birds watch people swallow, 

it makes them think of being eaten, and tells them to flee 

or keep their distance. Just before I woke, I was dreaming 

of a girl who lingered in a classroom until I was leaving. 

The class was full of teenage girls and boys, me among them. 

It was near our graduation, but the teacher good-naturedly kept 

us working. I arrived late in the day, early in the afternoon, 

and was surprised to have to do any work at all.

It was as if I had never noticed how attractive my classmates were, 

and I wondered if they only dated older guys. Then this girl came 

out the same door I did at the same time. It seemed she intended it, 

but she gave me no signal except the casual friendliness she had always shown.

Male mourning doves make their distinctive cooing sound – loud and persistent, 

almost like owls – to attract females. I guess the one outside 

my window found what he was looking for.