Owl

The old man with  large, knowing eyes, unblinking, unwavering.
What dusty tomes, decrepit scrolls has he seen?
Sitting alone at a park, staring across the empty game table
A box of Mahjong tiles at his elbow, a king in his hand.
A treasure chest sitting in the open, waiting to be unlocked.

The owl has long been the symbol for wisdom, going back as far as the greek goddess Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, and probably farther back than that. Owls live for a long time, some owls live up to fifty years. In movies we see the old man sitting in a park at a chess board waiting for someone to strike up a game and a conversation, they almost always have the answer to whatever the problem is. In a sense the two images have come to stand for each other. The theme of this poem is that wisdom is gained with age.