An Ode to Pigeons

(or: the cruelty of man)

By Clarissa Lara

Clever little birds

You always know where home is

brought far far away and still you make your way back 

Have you ever properly looked at yourself?

Small eyes with nothing behind them

Iridescent feathers shining with the colors of nacre

Feet that scurry in nonsensical directions as we near you 

Beautiful and nothing simple 

A big-city constant 

from 

New York 

to Portland 

to London

to Paris 

to Mumbai 

to Tokyo

Everywhere, you’re such 

Clever little birds 

You always know where home is 

brought far far away and still you make your way back

So we (arrogant self serving so utterly human)

took you from the embrace of Mother Nature and 

instead

Made you ours

Man’s to care for

Man’s to keep

Man’s to use

All over the world you lived and died and we

foolish that we are

forgot 

why we loved you

loyal and gentle and loving 

You flew through bullets and rain

to sit alongside us and deliver the words of those we couldn’t reach

in war and in peace 

back and forth you shuttled our hopes and fears and love and hate 

You were born at our whims

and died at them too

You were our constant companions

—— .

—— . 

—— .

—— .

until you weren’t

We left them 

Abandoned 

Fending for themselves

Alone and without the love of Man or Mother

Our flocks of loving gentle loyal birds 

became 

Feral  

In a world that had left them behind

Every city in all the world slowly,

surely,

Forgot

Do they remember when we cast them aside?

When all the world moved to bigger and better things do they remember that there came a day they were no longer 

used

kept

cared for

They are such clever little birds 

They always know where home is

Can be brought far far away and still they make their way back

Can we?