Joseph Klammer

There are Still Parrots in Pasadena

The first thing K learned about magpies was that they were known for brutally killing small songbirds and their young. Magpies tore apart nests and destroyed eggs, often eating the young and smaller parent birds in the process. Because of this and more, they earned a reputation for being the menace of the bird world. They were considered the meanest of all the corvids yet also one of the smartest, which in turn probably inspired much of their said meanness. Someone once told K that intelligence breeds meanness. She told them that she had heard the same said about stupidity. In the end, intellect doesn’t matter. Sharp or dull, it’s still people who breed the worst kinds of meanness.