In Search of Panache
by Gay Williford

She didn’t see it coming.
They’d only dated six times:
movies, two dinners and a box picnic.
Now she sat before him speechless.
Henry Bibson, hardware store clerk,
staid, taciturn and boring,
timidly proposing marriage to her,
Effie Higgins, librarian, forty-year old maid,
was not as desperate as might be thought.
She knew of and desired wooing
of quite a different format–
that of the New Guinea pabquin,
tropical birds seen in a nature video
inspiring her to fantasize
a similar romantic courtship.

The hen alights on the male’s tree branch
to assess this sleek black bird’s worth
as he begins a frenetic dance ritual–
prancing, strutting and gyrating,
puffing out his chest like
Louie Armstrong’s cheeks,
chittering, cooing, and wooing,
beating his wings in differing tempos,
fluffing out his feathers with pride,
bowing, then raising his head–
repeating these gestures over and over,
working up to the grand finale
when he sidles up to her and
in a smooth, gracious embrace
enfolds her in his wings,
she totally enamored.

Effie wanted this, every bit of it,
and though she realized its improbability,
she would not settle for Henry,
but would opt for spinsterhood
and the space to hope as she began
the delicate delivery of a gentle rejection.



 

Return to: