Turkey Love
by Kathe L. Palka

At the corner of our fenced yard
a tom fans his feathers, drops
first one barred wing, then the other,
sashays before our shed, a blue-faced
matador, red wattles swinging
as he taunts imagined rivals.
It is pure theater, and we, his only audience,
peer past the kitchen curtains, whispering,
enchanted by the mysteries of wild courtship.
Two hens, bored or unimpressed,
peck under the bird feeder
before sauntering away.
Engrossed in his performance, the tom
fails to notice their exit at first, then panics,
dashing back and forth along the pickets
unable to find the open gate—
deflated and frantic, a comic Casanova.
Sympathetic to his plight, knowing well
how miscommunication leads to heartache,
I stand on our deck, cheering encouragements
while you go to his aid waving arms
to herd him out, because even turkey love
deserves a second chance.


Kathe L. Palka, "Turkey Love" from Miracle of the Wine. © 2012 Kathe L. Palka published by Grayson Books. (buy now)

It's the birthday of the Queen of Crime, novelist Ruth Rendell (books by this author), born in London, England (1930). Her career as a writer did not start out on a promising note — she was fired from her first job as a journalist after she wrote a story about a Tennis League dinner without actually attending it, which was obvious since she failed to mention in the story that the keynote speaker had died in the middle of the speech.

But she went on to become a best-selling author of more than 50 books, many of them under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Her novels include A Judgment in Stone (1977), King Solomon's Carpet (1991), and Portobello (2008). Every morning she wrote for four hours, and then she ate the exact same lunch: bread, cheese, salad, and fruit.

Rendell died of a stroke on May 2, 2015. Her final novel was published the same year, a novel Dark Corners. In 2017 a posthumous collection of stories was released titled A Spot of Folly.

It's the birthday of the rabbi and novelist Chaim Potok (books by this author), born in the Bronx, New York (1929). When he was a teenager he read Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited and James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and he decided to devote his life to writing. He wrote many novels about Orthodox Jews raised in New York City, including The Chosen (1967), The Promise (1969), and The Book of Lights (1981).

It's the birthday of the poet, journalist, and songwriter Banjo Paterson (books by this author), born Andrew Paterson in Narrambla, Australia (1864). He was a lawyer who wrote poetry on the side — his family and friends called him "Barty" and his readers knew him as "the Banjo." For a while he was the second-most popular poet writing in English in the world, after Rudyard Kipling.

But we remember him best for writing the lyrics to "Waltzing Matilda." The words have changed slightly in the years since he wrote these original lyrics:

Oh there once was a swagman camped in the billabong,
Under the shade of a Coolibah tree,
And he sang as he looked at the old billy boiling,
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?

Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda my darling,
Who'll come a waltzin' Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water bag,
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?

A "swagman" is someone who travels around the countryside looking for work — the name comes from "swag," the big bundle of cloth or blanket a swagman would keep his belongings in. To "waltz Matilda" meant to travel around with a swag.

It was on this day in 1904 that Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly had its premiere at La Scala Theater in Milan, Italy. The audience hated it so much they hissed and booed. Puccini closed it after one night, revised it, and opened it later the same year. The second time around it was such a hit that there were five encores and Puccini had to come out in front of the curtain 10 times.

It's the birthday of the man who said, "A good sermon should be like a woman's skirt: short enough to arouse interest but long enough to cover the essentials." That's writer and priest Ronald Knox (books by this author), born in Kibworth, England (1888). He wrote and translated theological works, he gave regular BBC radio broadcasts, he wrote crime fiction, and he published satirical scholarship — his academic essays included a piece treating Sherlock Holmes as a historical figure and another claiming that Queen Victoria wrote Tennyson's "In Memoriam."

It's the birthday of science fiction writer Andre Norton (books by this author), born Alice Mary Norton in Cleveland, Ohio (1912). She wrote adventure stories in high school, and she wanted to be a history teacher. But she got her first book published when she was 20 and so she stuck with writing and for years she wrote spy novels and adventure stories. She legally changed her name from Alice Mary to Andre in 1934 because she thought she could sell more copies as a man than a woman. Then she got asked to edit an anthology of science fiction writing and she decided to try writing science fiction herself. Her book Star Man's Son (1951) was a success, so she turned her attention to that new genre and she became a best-selling and beloved author. When she died in 2005 at the age of 93 she had written more than 100 novels. Many of her books were for young adults, and they were some of the first young adult science fiction novels to be embraced by adults as well.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.^®

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