Unknowing

Wings dip, beaks peck

the crumbs of other birds

dropped to the grass

below sunflower cylinders.

The ragtag flock

of bottom feeders

storm the ground

gathering beak-flings,

off-wing decisions

of claw-clinging avians

swinging in the wind-shielded

plastic motion of an urban yard.

What do they realize of the manna

that appears and disappears

in their caste-unconscious lives?

The pecking order they take

for granted, the avifauna

that binds them to terra firma

their wings could escape,

gathers them in time and space

within the sallow light

of human thought and meaning.