Squinting in the brightness of a straight-up sun,
I flick my cigarette's ash and watch it roll
on the sidewalk, next to where I'm sitting
leaning back against my front door.
Dark wings flutter overhead and land
by a pool of oil-slicked water on the drive.
A yellow eye peers out from black feathers
to size my danger and determines--none.
I speak loudly at the bird, "If you drink that
it'll make you sick, and you might wake up dead."
Turning the other yellow eye to the pool
as if to consider, and weigh my words
regarding the safety of the find, the bird drinks,
and drinks, and drinks; until I stand up, finished.
Wiping its oil-slicked beak on black feathered
wings and back, it regards me once again
with the one eye and then returns to his sky
and leaving me with a nagging thirst for whiskey.