Double bag the carcass and throw it away in your regular trash

- the correct disposal of birds

As thanks for fixing a shattered fence

my neighbour offered me a lovebird.

He kept an aviary full

of golden pheasants

devastatingly beautiful

yet untamable in their vocality.

My gift was wrapped in pale feathers

a loneliness of pastels. I longed to connect

branch out a splintered hand

take it.

Ideally, they come as a pair

he sighed

offering no insight into the tragedy of

solitude

or why he now possessed an ambiguity.

Reflected in its voided eyes

a grain of death.

I refused the gift

politely

with excuse of allergies.

Fate nodded

understanding.

We went our separate ways

but every morning I could still hear

the pheasants

screaming.