carrion raze a strange bird stripped for parts. that's what i think you are when we first meet. wings wound too tight to be of any use. your nascent young untethered by talons from the maw of your meat. it takes time to separate tail from small intestine with my eyes. i notice the sensory hairs that let you see the world when the only light left was what moved through you. then: speckled fur. dark tips with light bases. the small spaced pads of dextrous forepaws. your head thrown back in shock and the sharp hurt of knowing a debt was about to be paid before you were ready to surrender all you held dear. two iron-rich teeth you never would have shown me by choice. i step away to ruminate on how best to bury what's left of you and come back to find you've fled — retrieved by the predator that plundered your guts for edible gold, or ascended to some celestial realm where carrion and custodians of memory walk hand_in_hand. 260421 what's it to you? who go blather from