THE GREEN BIRD, ABSENTIA

 

I recorded a bit of bird watching in my last blog and have since seen even more birds of color: red, yellow, black, brown. Those sightings prompted memories of an elusive deep green bird I glimpsed after a few weeks of a two-year sojourn in Ahwaz, Iran. As a reminder of Iran, I substituted the drawing of a scene in Iran by New Iberia artist Georgia Dugan (now deceased) for the green bird.
 


I was still suffering from culture shock when I saw the beautiful green bird sitting in the desert near Marun, Iran, where I'd accompanied my husband when he worked on a water injection project in southern Iran. I hadn't photographed any Khuzestan scenes. However, I mentioned the green bird in a poem that the National Oil Company newspaper published. The poem attracted a visit from Hassan Hosseinipour, the company editor/poet who offered me a job writing for the Yaddasht Haftegy. I never saw the green bird again, and I'm sorry that I didn't photograph him. 
 


After seeing the bird, I asked my Dutch neighbor about him as she'd been an assistant veterinarian on the Isle of Cyprus. Maude Vroon had brought rice birds in her pocket via air when she moved to Iran and was an avid bird watcher. However, she just handed me a copy of Zien Is Kennen (Look to Know) to do my search for the green bird. The text and accompanying photo seemed to identify Groene Specht, a green woodpecker. This identification amazed me since trees were scant in Khuzestan, Iran.



The green woodpecker, a European species fond of ants, probably had been pecking in an old date orchard, the site of which had been decimated and became Melli Rah subdivision. In this company-owned residential area, we lived for two years. The bird uses the same nesting hole for ten years, and I reckon he hadn't changed residence in a decade. His main fare of ants may have eventually become termites, critters that caused us to move during the last few months of our two-year sojourn.
 


Later today, I plan to search for a children's animated series entitled Bagpuss, a woodpecker. A good friend often accuses me of romanticizing my sojourn in Iran. However, I do value the two-year experience I recorded in vignettes back in the '70s. In the introduction re-published in Iran: In A Persian Market, 2015, I often repeat the lament of Omar Khayyam, 11th-century Persian poet: "The glory is departed—Where? Where? Where?"
 


And the deep green bird remains vivid in my memories of Iran.

 

Drawing by Georgia Dugan (deceased).