My Super Power

One of a kind

I sit high above the traffic, thinking.

My little mind goes to all sorts of things, though many of those ideas relate to food. I have plenty of food for myself, mind you, or at least I know where to get it. But I worry about the little ones, the ones who aren’t old enough to forage for themselves. What will they do without food?

But I also worry about pollution. I could move my perch, of course, and I’ve thought about it many times. But I stay here because that’s where the action is, you know, the food. The rolling metal boxes down there can’t fly and flitter to wherever they want. I see some of those two-legged critters walking, and I think they must not be wealthy enough for a rolling box.

I really don’t know anything other than what I see and hear and smell every day.

For instance, where do these two-legged creatures go every day in their rolling boxes? What do they eat? I see the huge wooden boxes they live in and wonder what’s inside.

Early mornings are fun. The large rolling boxes come and haul away paper and bags and debris from behind each of the wooden boxes. What do they do with it? Stinks too. I see some of my colleagues feasting out of that thing. They’re scroungers, though, a different class of bird. Not me, I can tell you that. I’m a worm and bug lady myself. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, I just sit up here and watch. The sun on my back is nice, especially when it’s not raining or snowing. Then I’m trying to find shelter to keep…Wait, wait! That’s it, there it is, my first worm of the morning. I can smell it a block away. Get to it before the others. Go. Go now. That’s why I sit here and none of my other colleagues are here. Yes, it’s full of smoke and pollution and dust, but the smell of worms in the morning is distinct from the exhaust, very different.

That’s my superpower.