Saturday Verse: "The Whistler" - Mary Oliver

THE WHISTLER

All of a sudden she began to whistle. By all of a sudden I mean that for more than thirty years she had not whistled. It was thrilling. At first I wondered, who was in the house, what stranger? I was upstairs reading, and she was downstairs. As from the throat of a wild and cheerful bird, not caught but visiting, the sounds warbled and slid and doubled back and larked and soared. 

Finally I said, Is that you? Is that you whistling? Yes, she said. I used to whistle, along time ago. Now I see I can still whistle. And cadence after cadence she strolled through the house, whistling. 

I know her so well, I think. I thought. Elbow and ankle. Mood and desire. Anguish and frolic. Anger too. And the devotions. And for all that, do we even begin to know each other? Who is this I've been living with for thirty years? 

This clear, dark, lovely whistler?

                                                                                                                                        - Mary Oliver