Free Flight, But For Whom?

From the corner of my eye I take in a grey brown blur but I keep my eyes on the road; then the flight erupts right in front of me. I stomp on the brakes and narrowly avoid impact. There is nothing idyllic about this flight. Nothing that makes me feel warm and fuzzy about nature. This is different, this is frantic; this is persistent. The larger brown mass is in concert with the smaller grey one. The grey swerves upward exposing a breast; a fatal move. The brown’s claws clench and the gruesome tandem again crosses my path; wings up and wings down and THUMP they hit the ground.

The small bird moves no more.