Blue Jay

Poor, little blue jay
we should’ve left you

where we found you.
But, we decided you deserved

a Viking funeral.
We put you in a plastic bowl

filled it with kerosene,
lit it, and pushed you

out on the water.
The bowl melted through.

The kerosene spread across the water.
You haven’t lived until

you set a swamp green on fire.
Poor, little blue jay

we should’ve left you
where we found you.

–June 2017