kakapo

why do men have deep voices and women not?
eventually I hit on the answer
it's so that when a man climbs up
to the mountaintop at the head of the valley
and stands there looking out
with his feet planted firmly
and he begins to boom out his clear manly call
and it echoes down
across the pine trees
and bounces off the crags
and drives chamois and squirrels
into their holes
the women who have been busy
in the valley
with their hanging of red rags around the stone houses
will hear him
will abandon their tasks
and come rushing up the mountainside like falling leaves
suddenly caught in the updraught and the sunlight
of his voice
and so that when they arrive perspiring and flushed
they will cluster about him in a flock
issuing cooing sounds
they will fluff their feathers and primp
and he will know from their voices
that there is not a man among them
to trespass upon his ardour