"Ultimate Things" by Jean Mallinson

 

From left, Jean Mallinson, Carolyn Zonailo, 
and Stephen Morrissey

Jean Mallinson at home, (c. mid-1990s)

Jean Mallinson and Carolyn Zonailo who
was visiting Jean at her West Vancouver home

Dying, the naturalist turns

his inner eye to things his keen

outer eyes noticed and he loved:

an eastern meadowlark seen

at a bird-feeder the fourth winter in a row

a male cardinal (probably blown

off course in a storm) photographed on snow.

Though he can no longer trudge as he used to

with binoculars to wait and watch in the woods

he greets with delight the news

of the Christmas bird-count in his neighbourhood.

When he meets his Maker he will address

the One who created wild things:

the migrating warbler, the pileated

woodpecker, the forty-three kinds of orchid

he identified in days of his hardiness.