Hard to Get by Jean Ryan

Baby doves.
It's a wonder they arrive,
given the adult females,
the way they dodge the males,
darting this way and that
for hours or days.

Female frogs will play dead
to avoid mating. Primates will turn to trickery.
Octopuses have been filmed throwing rocks at their suitors.

Researchers tell us that female doves
are not evading the males—they are testing their stamina.
Other species, sensing they are not fertile,
will drive off any male. Some can even predict
bad weather and refuse to raise offspring
till conditions improve.
Sensible theories, I must admit.

Still. Watching doves in my yard, it is hard to imagine
that the beleaguered females are in charge,
or that an octopus hurling rocks
is playing hard to get.



Jean Ryan, a native Vermonter, lives in coastal Alabama. She is the author of two short story collections, Survival Skills (Lamba Literary Award finalist) and Lovers and Loners. She has also published a novel, Lost Sister, a book of nature essays, Strange Company, and two poetry collections, A Day Like This and In This Vanishing Time. https://jean-ryan.com/