The Scrub Jay
Found amid dry lowlands
along the Pacific seaboard
where no one ever doused the sand in sunflower seeds
during mornings bereft of peanuts
when it rained water and not snacks delivered by an Instacart driver
this natural bird persisted
despite an absence of lazy 11am cooing
couched in obscenities directed at the family
the California scrub jay did not go extinct
it perched on
the Norwegian brown rat, however,
also known as the roof rat for its keen ability to climb
burrowed beneath the sidewalks and emigrated to a nearby neighborhood as soon as
pellets of store-packaged handouts disappeared
in an apocalyptic event that the scrub jays could only describe as
some other day
when that lady wasn’t there
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