First aid for birds

Until last night, I had no idea that ordinary people went around saving pigeons from digital amputation. How wonderful is that?

Part of a collage by my nine-year-old. It was hard to resist using this because the Pigeon by Mo Willems is included. (I saved the pages from one of his books after a long-ago toddler tore them up.)

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Yesterday, our oldest daughter walked 
around the city with her friend
learning how to destring pigeons. 
To scatter cracked corn when you see a limp, 
and wait for the wounded bird eating 
to be hemmed in by his healthy peers. 
To catch him and unwind the thread, 
the cord, the long strand of strong hair 
from his feet. 

O God, for an ounce of this compassion 
to drop and spread among the sea of your people, 
an antidote to the poison that floods your earth. 
That we would see each other 
as my daughter’s friend sees the pigeons: 

worthy of care in a war-cleaved world;
worthy to walk the broken ground 
in just a little less pain. To be freed 
from the bondage our waste creates. 
Amen.