In competition with the music

belting from the party next door

the channel-billed cuckoo falls,

uncharacteristically, silent. Its red eyes glint

from the tree tops like holly berries.

The channel-billed cuckoo is the enemy of sleep.

A brood parasite, normally it transmits

its single electronic note like an erratic pulse

on a cardiac monitor, the last signal from a polar

submarine, growing in urgency, or else it plays

one obsessive, amplified key all night.

That is to say – all night. What must

the other sleep-deprived birds think?

Maybe it needs to get out of the nest more,

or rather out of someone else’s nest,

like an unwelcome interloper

who will not leave, no matter

how late it gets; who drinks all the beer

dances too wildly, who night

after night asks to crash on the couch

and snores.