Quakers Are the Only Nest Building Parrots Known

 

"The birds are actually celebrated there,” he said, pointing out that a nearby playground was decorated with a frieze of metal parrots. They definitely lend an air of joy right in the heart of the city.”—The New York Times

 

 

If your slit ear, subterranean and fine,

hears insects that move beneath the clatter of words

 

if the perfect ring of your white bright eye

with its midnight pupil sees beyond

everything we claim and use up

 

if the feathered lawn of your mottled green and gray

crown knows that color—deep cerulean, suffusion

of yellow, beautiful camouflage—balances and sings

 

then call to us. Call us to fly,

to inhabit this weighty nest of scraps, this common

work of celebration, this home.