African Gray

He looked
straight into me,
through glinting brass bars,
head tilted almost coyly
to one side,
a voice
not his own

Please don’t hit me.
Please stop…
Please stop…

And the sound of a blow,
its clarity unreal.

And then the entire cycle

again.

And again.

And I wondered
how the bird came to be
in a place like this,
alone.

And how many times
it had to hear something
in order to repeat it
with such fidelity.