A Steller’s jay. Photo by Michael Anfang on Unsplash
Garden Rival
I called to the Steller’s jay
rooting for seeds in my shabby garden,
but he didn’t answer; he
just kept flittering hither and thither,
loudly shacking his territory with
a harsh “SHACK-Sheck-sheck-sheck-sheck!”
sifting the choicest bits
ahead of the luckless wrens and finches.
I didn’t think he was listening,
but I couldn’t help myself.
I asked him if it was true
that in order to love another,
you must love yourself first,
for I observed that I’ve loved some
like my life was forfeit, and yet others
forced love from lungs in violent spasms,
spilling onto pages and surfaces,
surging to fill every crevice and valley.
I’ve loved tenderly and scandalously,
I’ve loved dutifully and illicitly,
I’ve withheld from others
and denied myself the respite
and believed fatted luxurious lies in real-time
to preserve rotted acorns of truths long gone,
often hating both who I was, am,
and whatever I have become,
and so I asked him, am I doing it right?
I didn’t wait for his answer,
because he’s just a dumb, greedy bird
hording the good seeds for himself.
The Steller’s jay stopped flittering,
made a loud “skreeka!”
looked me in the eye
and said, “That’s the stupidest thing
I ever heard! Love don’t work that way!
Maybe you’re just too dumb for love!”
I read somewhere that Steller’s jays
often mimic birds of prey
to fool rivals into hiding.
***
Originally shared on Medium.
Also shared on Poetry Pantry #495.
Hephaestus’ Waste & Cosmic Rubble 
”Love doesn’t work that way …” – a mindful that.
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I’m in love with that gorgeous bird.Nice to have a sweet bird to talk to in your shabby garden:)
Sacrifice and selflessness is the key to love. You consider the needs of the other person first even if you know they are not worthy. Love is a cruel trick played on us by the Greek gods . Greek mythology is full of these types of stories.
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Thought provoking conversation to have with a bird of prey…. But I think he may be on to something…
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Thank you. I often feel like a dum-dum when it comes to love!
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I agree, and that “something” might be disturbing…
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So true! Loving yourself first is very important. If not you, who!
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I agree self love is what must come first! Our heart’s geography needs boundary lines to hold the good seeds~
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LOL all I can say is, I’m now in love with this poem, and the bird in it.
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I LOVE this poem. I Love the cheeky bird. And your line about loving someone as if your life was forfeit resonated – I have done that more than once. Now I am just in love with poems with birds in them, and that works very well. Smiles. My favourite poem of yours!
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