I am sitting in post office square park, having a cigarette with the unhealthy birds that graze here.
They prowl by my ankles, curiously bobbing their heads as if to ask if what I have, they may have also.
Their feathers are brown, where once they were white. I know this, because I have seen pigeons in other places, and was shocked to see them so different.
These ones have a dull sheen of disease, and I wonder if they know of their brothers and sisters who are free, who have clean feathers and strong beaks, who ride the wind to foreign places and fight with exotic predators for triumph and pride.
A homeless man approaches. He throws a bucket of bread on the ground, and they swarm the scraps, pecking and praying at that sacrilegious shrine.
No. They do not care for their kindred. 'Why should I go?' They must think. Better to grow fat and dirty with comfort and ease than to risk life and leg in the mysteries of the unknown. 'I have all I need right here.'
They finish their scraps and a few come back my way.
I try to tell them that cigarettes are not for birds, but I get stuck trying to figure out if they are really meant for humans either.
They prowl by my ankles, curiously bobbing their heads as if to ask if what I have, they may have also.
Their feathers are brown, where once they were white. I know this, because I have seen pigeons in other places, and was shocked to see them so different.
These ones have a dull sheen of disease, and I wonder if they know of their brothers and sisters who are free, who have clean feathers and strong beaks, who ride the wind to foreign places and fight with exotic predators for triumph and pride.
A homeless man approaches. He throws a bucket of bread on the ground, and they swarm the scraps, pecking and praying at that sacrilegious shrine.
No. They do not care for their kindred. 'Why should I go?' They must think. Better to grow fat and dirty with comfort and ease than to risk life and leg in the mysteries of the unknown. 'I have all I need right here.'
They finish their scraps and a few come back my way.
I try to tell them that cigarettes are not for birds, but I get stuck trying to figure out if they are really meant for humans either.