How do I know I am aging?
Well, that's not too amazing.
There's the white hair, for one thing,
and the skin color fast fading.
Yet I hauled myself up the mountain
and right back down again
without too much intense pain
in my legs, heart... and boiling brain.
The uptight people I met on the track,
well, some could've used a good smack.
But one cheerful animal made up for that...
a super-friendly whiskey jack.
It was here, it was there,
on my foot and in the air.
There's no creature that can compare
for making you feel like a millionaire.
The tough, gray-and-white bird,
whose name's based on a native word,
is viewed as being somewhat weird
by most humans in our mundane world.
Call it camp robber or Canada jay,
the whiskey jack loves to play,
even on the coldest day,
treating every food as its prey.
Whether hanging upside down,
or hopping silently around,
this avian optimist's a trickster clown
who never ever wears a frown.
Climbing atop that tiring peak,
my weary bones had begun to creak...
until I witnessed the sheer cheek
of that fearless, feathered freak.