death of a little bird

outside the picture window
which provided pleasure to the
aging couple
whose days of raising their own
children
were long gone in the past,
a mother blue jay had two babies &
the couple watched the whole thing
emerge,
for the nest had been built
in the lilac tree
which had been planted years ago
right beneath the window.

one day, the red squirrel,
whom the family dog had been
chasing for such a long time,
the two had become something of
a morning novelty,
had climbed up the tree &
killed one of the babies while
its mother wasn’t home.

when the couple discovered that the
baby had been killed,
as some remnants were left which could
be seen from the window,
they were quite distraught to say the least
&
the death of the little bird kept them up
late at night for the next few nights.

while the old woman pleaded with “god,”
proclaiming “why! why! why!” when
she got up in the middle of the night,
as if one of her own children had died,
the old man told her that it had been
evolution which dealt with the matter---
mother bird had not built the nest
high enough, and so the red squirrel
had been able to get at the new babies.

the old woman pleaded with her husband,
saying that red squirrels didn’t even eat meat!
&
the old man said that they did,
she just hadn’t seen them, or perhaps the
squirrel just never got so lucky---
“they got to get their protein somewhere,”
he said,
then she went on saying that the squirrel
could get that from nuts &
so it went on & on.

after a few days went by
the large rat traps in the garage coupled with
the large wads of peanut butter used by the
old man
to lure in the squirrel,
did in fact succeed in killing it &
the old woman then felt justified.

‘“god” wanted him dead,” she said &
the old man, carrying the trap with the squirrel’s
neck broken & bloody, ready to hurl the whole
thing in the woods remarked with a smile,
“no---
evolution dealt with the matter.”