the other morning I woke to a commotion
a bird got in the house
and the cat found it
gato got a few good licks in
Anna locked him in the living room
and we encouraged the bird
out the kitchen door

later that night
when I got home from the fort
I found a colleague of the black bird
door nail dead in the upstairs hallway
black claw feet sticking straight up

I hoped it was a different bird.
Not the one we saved.
But what method to my madness
that one bird was worth more
than the other?