When my Chileian friend shouted,

“Quidado, Rubio! Es peligroso!”

I got the idea

she didn’t want me caught in the rip

off that Antofagasta playa.

But when the chimes chime for dinner

in my backyard bird diner

and my multi-feathered customers

hit the feeders to feast,

suddenly there’s a single sharp call,

maybe from the Blue Jay

and off they go,

pell-mell into the wood-lot branches,

Cardinal avoiding Wren,

Chickadee deftly dodging Nuthatch.

So,

either the Jay speaks aviary Esperanto

or every bird understands

each others lingo

from their first heart beat.

And I have never seen an Owl

teaching Warbler

to a class of Yellow-Bellied Sap Suckers.

Yeah, yeah,

I know.

After years of vocabulary quizzes

and verb conjugations,

a few of us can ask,

“Donde esta el banyo?”

in Bar-th-lona.

But birds speak their Birdtalk to all birds

and each bird understands each bird

from the first crack in their egg.

So recognize human hubris

when we claim “Inherent Superiority”.

Then remember what you see

when the Flicker rests secure in the bushes

and the Thrasher hunkers hidden in the brush,

safe from the circling Hawk

screeching for its supper.