Doves, the Bible names them.
New Yorkers call them rats with wings.
Jesus said God loved them.
My mother said they spread disease.
God just said— spread. And so they did. And so they do.
Multiply and subdue the earth, the Lord decreed.
Though humans thought he was addressing them,
pigeons know these words were meant for pigeons
who the Creator forged in his own resplendent image:
grey-seeming, yet sporting rainbow ruffs
revealing all the shades and shadings of Creation.
Omnipresent, perched on every rook and corner.
Yet we scarcely notice these amiable avians
as they wheel above our heads, or bob
in conga lines on summer lawns, reaping
what they did not sow, inheriting the earth.
