I press the trigger.
Zing!
Bing!
Bam!
And the lifeless tweety birds are, at once, tapping at my sliding glass door in a frenzy. I am an ignominy under their boring, baleful look. Their glossy glare is like a black lens, looking down on me for leaving them out in the cold for so long; hasn't it just been seconds?
They come in the most vibrant colors, concealing the ravenous crow that lies underneath. They urge me to swipe the door open and let them consume me whole. They'll pick away at my brains, they'll swallow my eyeballs along with my tongue and won't even flinch as my body parts drop into their vast, pitless stomachs.
The process is painless, though, if I follow them into the dreamy chaos without resistance; only then will they stop squalling and bickering, they promise. I cannot stand the discordant combination of the hundreds of tapping beaks and wildly flailing flapping wings humming outside. The humming turns into a drumming then into a pounding that pounds me into submission, all signs of a tell-tale heart.
I let them in.
One stealthily made its way in my hands and its pompous presence makes me take notice. I begin to caress it, offering my undivided attention and the rest welter behind the bird to form an endless line to be the next I tend to, cutting in front of each other and using any kind of skullduggery to get me to look at them; of course, they know no patience.
A little blue bird tells me, informs me, of what God forsaken event in the world has just taken place, and a little red bird entertains me with foolish this and thats, this and thats. They peck and pick at my skin, peel and play with it, but I cannot tear my eyes away from the next palm-sized bird that has appeared in my grasp now. They all have something new to offer!
Their screams subside beneath my blissful ignorance. "You're breathtaking," I say to the fleet while I pamper each one of them. They flock over to me and smother me in a tight embrace, their claws tear at both ends of my mouth, lifting my cheeks and forcing a smile.
Peace. At last.
-Hanna Guzman (2021)
