Business

[stanley]

Business
If bird business were my business
I'd want to know what the racket is up there in the treetops,(legally mine, after all),
Among the crows, that is, so shrill and contentious
and about what?

I'd caw rude questions of my own.
I really would,
If bird business were my business.

[DarkestbeforeDawn]

What an interesting poem. What was your inspiration? Why would bird business be your business? I suppose it rather defeats the point of poetry, demanding an explanation as I do. But I'm curious. Will you humor me?

[stanley]

I'll try,Darkestbeforedawn. I have always liked crows and suspect that they are quite intelligent, but incapable of tact or euphemism. Crows tell it like it is, and they seem always to be in rude debate among themselves or delivering scathing commentary upon the human scene at the same time that they so shamelessly rob and exploit it. This is silly anthropomorphic fantasy on my part, of course, but I do wonder about these rascals. They often frequent (my?) trees and I often return their scolding ridicule with caws of my own. But it's hard to penetrate crow secrecy, and so I get only verbal abuse and no answers. In dialog with a bunch of rude birds this is better than no answers at all. I am in this, of course, much less rational than the poem's persona. Thanks for reading.