A conversation overheard
PATRICIA REMY
“The human was cleaning up the fallen branches from the Big Storm. I saw her stop and look down. She seemed sad,” chirped RobinX.
“Do humans get sad?,” cheeped RobinY.
“Well, she looked it,” chirped RobinX.
“How does a human look sad?” cheeped RobinY. “You know, it’s debatable whether they even have emotions. Drives and instincts, yes, but feelings in our sense of the word? Homo destructans, I call them. They leave a swathe of devastation wherever they go.”
“Well, she looked it, is all I can say,” chirped RobinX. “She peered down at something among the heap of branches she had piled up and looked more closely at it. She warbled some low soft tones.”
”What was she looking at, did you see?” cheeped RobinY.
“I flew over afterwards. There were seeds among the twigs, so I was going to inspect the pile of wood anyway. That’s when I saw one of our eggs broken open,” chittered RobinX.
“And you think the human noticed that and was sad about it?” RobinY. tweeted.
“All I’m saying is, she looked it”, piped RobinX.
“You are SO sentimental”, snorted Robin Y. [Yes, birds can snort, in their way, that is; just listen,] “Let’s check out the seeds you say are there and then scout out some earthworms or beetles”. RobinX and RobinY moved apart and began to search the short grass under the maple tree, the one which had lost the branch on which they had built their nest.
They were interrupted by the resident human, who had come out to plant some berry bushes. RobinY observed how she crouched down and picked something up. It was their nest, their home, which had been torn from its spot in the maple and landed in the cedar hedge. During the Big Storm. RobinY and RobinX had been blown off the nest, swept up in a swirl of wind, just before the branch broke. They had huddled in the cedar hedge for protection. They had lost their eggs.
RobinY observed how the human really did look sad, as she examined the nest.
“Well, I’ll be,” muttered RobinY. “Maybe they really do care. Some of them, anyway.”
But do enough of them care enough?
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