Frenzy

Here is the little earthworm-eater

she-kiwi.

She’s in her frenzy of lust.

There she goes in her flightless

night journey, in mating season,

warm in her fur-feathers

poking her long bill, beaker,

with nostrils at the tip

sniffing and drilling

scratching and uprooting

with her powerful feet

pausing, maybe, to let

herself be mounted

furiously and briefly

by a he-kiwi whose

odor is to her liking.

Then there she goes again —

through the underbrush

(followed by her 

faithful seducer)

back to her querencia

to burrow down

and wait and sometime

later she stands up

suddenly, and hatches

a big egg

nearly half the size

of her little body.

Finished, she steps away

and the father-to-be

steps in and sits

on the egg

warming it,

sits and sits warmly,

for three months

while she-kiwi, lustful still,

goes out looking

to get laid again.