Jim van den Bos
Today I saw a bird staring at me sideways
It had an air of annoyance around her
Her beak lifted slightly upwards
She was judging me with her squinty eyes
She flapped a wing in my general direction
Weakly, As if to say, you poor oblong thing
Bound to the floor, you’ll never know
What true freedom means.
She pecked at some leftover baguette
Snappy pecks, like her judgments of me
She props up a feather and gets ready to leave
On to the next victim of her sarcasm
I looked at her, the sassy gray pigeon
And I wave her off, imagining her thoughts
How every second spend on the earth’s crust
Must be a waste of time for her