Poem for Wednesday and Mother's Day Gifts

Looking For Work
By Alison Luterman

Consider the pigeons of the city,
how in their filthy swoop and dive they fatten
on dusty Dorito crumbs;
consider their evolution
through generations of squawk and squalor,
peck and fight. (And what did it take for that one,
strutting his kingly amethyst ruff,
his neck sheen of subdued emerald,
his fat gray feathers of survival,
to survive here?)

Consider the homeless man outside Albertson's,
approaching every car with his rags and Windex,
whose far-distant ancestor
was able to track and kill
the wildebeest, the antelope, and the cape hare.
Consider how far he has come,
listening to his ipod between customers,
and yet how faithful he stays to the wild
dictates of seek and hunt and gather,
scoping out the best shelters for meals,
the cleanest beds, the one
tight face still able to open.

Consider your bank account,
dipping like a low-flying bird,
then spreading wings and planing
over the fields of dead numbers,
canceled checks, ancient pay stubs,
long afternoons bought and paid for
in boredom and lost purpose. And the live
bodies of your brothers and sisters, crushed
in the trash compactor of Unwanted Ads.

Consider yourself,
marching in and out of these institutions
in your skirt and nylons, leaving ferocious lipstick tracks
on styrofoam coffee cups,
your name and address on application forms,
like one of your ancestors peeing on a thorn bush.

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Tuesday featured a return to spring -- temperatures in the 70s, lots of squirrels and chipmunks on the deck trying to steal birdseed, peonies and roses opening which we saw on our walk. But the real excitement around here was getting a glimpse of the babies that the bluebirds who go in and out of our front yard birdhouse have been hatching and feeding! They seem to be 80 percent open beaks, and I will post photos tomorrow. 

Today I got more belated Mother's Day presents: a pair of Camargue earrings from Adam, which came beautifully packaged with ribbons, bookmarks about the region, and a little soap with a figure of a bird molded inside it, and a Loki Loungefly crossbody purse, an exchange for a Nationals cherry blossom t-shirt Paul got me that didn't really fit. (I never showed off the turquoise turtle earrings my parents got me either, or the Gible from Daniel.) 

 

We ate leftover pasta, then I watched Voyager's "The Gift" with 5/6 of my usual group -- good acting but I really dislike the episode, in which so many things are tossed aside (Kes, Seven as a potential threat, the entirety of Borg space) instead of being explored. After that we finished the first season of Hacks in time for the second. I adore Deborah but Ava is really mean; I know she's a mess but I have trouble rooting for her.