I woke up with a headache
at the sound of a hammer
pounding loudly at my house.
I went to check it out,
still in my pajamas,
wondering if the city had some repairs to do
or if a neighbor was letting off some steam
But there was my double surprise
when it turned out to be
a wood pecker pecking away
at my house.
The first surprise was
A wood pecker searching for food
in the sterile and dead wood boards
of my house
The second surprise was
Turns out a wood pecker
doesn’t peck for food
but to attract a mate.
The next day came around
and the wood pecker woke me up again
with the same repetitive deafening sound.
So I told him:
“You did not find your mate yet?
There’s the hitch buddy
I’m single.
There’s no mate in my house.
I’m bad luck to you.
If you really have to peck at a house
find a house with a mate!”
The next day came around
and, guess what?
The wood pecker was knocking his heart out
again
at my house
calling and calling away
for a mate to hear his song
Now his knocking made its way into my heart
I could hear it pounding day and night
So I started to think
there was a message in this for me.
It was obviously
that I needed to find myself a mate.
So I learned from the bird
and went knocking at my lovely neighbor’s house
to ask her out on a date.
As it turns out,
she already had someone special in her heart.
So the bird was right;
you don't knock at a house
where there already is a mate!
Now that the bird was gone,
I fixed the huge holes he left behind.
I went on my new quest
undeterred by daily rejections.
Autumn came around
then Winter
and still found no lover.
It occurred to me
I was at a dead end.
Perhaps the message was in the holes
not in the knocking;
It was not for me to find a mate
but to find the holes left in my heart.
I remembered someone
I had kept a grudge toward
for gossiping behind my back,
someone else I mistreated
who never acknowledged my apologies,
and a few lovers now out of sight.
So I opened my heart to each hole
they had left
and found something
I had not noticed before:
the horrid stench of death.
By giving it attention,
it finally started to burn.
I had closed my heart to them
because I was moving on on my path.
I had closed my heart to them
for no other reason
than I gave great importance to “my path”
and forgot that people matter more.
So thank you little wood pecker
who poked holes into my house
and showed me the deeper ones
I had all over my heart.