Columbinae

and there it lay, hardly motionless, its wings fluttering in futility. and all the while we looked on, motionless. it was unnatural to see it in its condition, and it made me fidget. i fidgeted and fidgeted, i would later look back at my looking away as most proper. it was simply unnatural that anything that would otherwise be so full of life be reduced this, this pile of muscle, organs, blood, and sinews. so natural. and after all, nothing to show for it. in retrospection, i must admit that it had sheer determination that i myself could not claim to have. time after time it arose and fluttered a few feet on its battered wings and broken foot, only to smash head-first into an obstacle - the tree. eerily natural now that i reflect. it was, of course, placed there years, decades, eons before, yet it was there in that very moment in time, ready to knock the weak to the ground and laugh. and laugh it did. the breeze, seeing such a massacre, did sigh a mournful breath for us all. the tree and all the world towered over the little bird. i looked away, i turned away. i could bear it no longer. the sun glaring in my eye, i left it to my shadow to keep that memory company.