WE
ATE THE BIRDS. We ate them. We
wanted their songs to flow up through our throats and burst
out of our mouths, and so we ate them. We wanted their
feathers to bud from our flesh. We wanted their wings, we
wanted to fly as they did, soar freely among the treetops
and the clouds, and so we ate them. We speared them, we
clubbed them, we tangled their feet in glue, we netted
them, we spitted them, we threw them onto hot coals, and
all for love, because we loved them. We wanted to be one
with them. We wanted to hatch out of clean, smooth,
beautiful eggs, as they did, back when we were young and
agile and innocent of cause and effect, we did not want the
mess of being born, and so we crammed the birds into our
gullets, feathers and all, but it was no use, we
couldn’t sing, not effortlessly as they do, we
can’t fly, not without smoke and metal, and as for
the eggs we don’t stand a chance. We’re mired
in gravity, we’re earthbound. We’re ankle-deep
in blood, and all because we ate the birds, we ate them a
long time ago, when we still had the power to say
no.