Man like the nesting blue jay
Swoops and pecks at anything unfamiliar
Bobs in front of gilded mirrors
Chirping the mindless chat
I like
You Like
We all like
So we belong

Nests of thoughtful solitude
Where creativity hatches and grows
Are almost extinct
Conformity is the required crest and
The masses cling desperately to like-feathered friends

Not all trill the blue-jay song
Lone individuals perch high in the pines
Capture temporal visions on the voice of the wind
Display the world’s wisdom in brilliant plumage
Unlike that of the other birds

But when they alight in a flock of blue-breasted jays
They’re pecked until they’re featherless
And the evensong they carried from the heavens
Is drowned in senseless gabble