“Elephants Call Each Other by Name, Study Finds”

Who's been a parent and, from years
of raising children, has not sometimes
addressed their partner  mom or dad? 
I don't mean intentionally, like the former 
Vice President who calls his wife 
Mother in public, and reportedly never 
eats dinner alone with any woman 
other than Karen (his wife). 

                                  I mean, doesn't hearing 
the sound of your name in your ear, said 
by your beloved, make the phone a richly 
carpeted corridor in a hotel lined with moss-
colored wallpaper? Outside the balcony 
doors, the wind touches every ancient 
magnolia tree along the avenue
as if it knew them, 

                                         which it does. Owls 
signal through the night; frogs submerge 
their bodies in water to amplify the sound 
from their throats. Elephants call each 
other by name, and humpback whales  
weave intricate messages of song 
through the deep.