For weeks they came daily; grackles and 
vultures swarming in plagues and kettles
descending to take, devour claimed food.
A scold of jays bitching from leafless trees
did nothing to deflect or deter the feedings.

Now they are gone; the migrant portions
of their species; the uneasy, the unsettled,
the searchers. For days by my windows I
stood entranced, aching to leave, to gorge;
imploring them to take me along to soar.