Bird

There were all these little birds around my car when I went out this morning-- those little brown ones-- what are they?-- sparrows? They seemed to be bunched up under and around my back right tire and they flew away startledly as I approached, some of them bunching precariously on the chain link fence in front of my car, then flying further away as I unlocked my car and got in. As I drove east on Basse, near the coffee place and Sushi Zushi, there was a white-winged dove in the street ahead of me, with its head turned in the opposite direction. Usually birds wait till the last possible second, then they fly away, so I didn't bother to slow down. I ran over that dove, heard it thud against the undercarriage of my car, and saw feathers fly up in my rearview mirror. A horrible shock ran through me and I shouted out, "Christ!" I turned around at the next intersection to backtrack. There is no room to pull over on that section of Basse and at this time of morning cars are coming fast and constant. As I re-drove the same two blocks I saw no sign of the bird, not even a feather. I kept driving and felt very sad.

I stopped at Starbucks but when I went in, it was so crowded that I just got disgusted and went to work.