A bird the color of sunlight when it shines through ocean water
sat directly across from me, caged and endlessly annoying. For
the past hour, it had been picking feed from its food bowl and
tossing it outside of its cage, the stiff corn kernels bouncing
off of the linoleum with a clack. The bird continued this until
its bowl was empty, to which it started tapping its small black
beak against the ceramic in the same repetitious clacking
noise. I stared blankly at the bird, eyes unfocused and
unseeing. I tapped my almost-empty glass against the table a
beat behind the bird, lost in some mindless game of push and
pull where I didn’t quite know who the enemy was. I
couldn’t tell who enjoyed the monotonous echo more, me or
the bird. Truthfully, it was driving me insane, but that
wasn’t to say it was particularly unpleasant. Really, I
knew exactly who the enemy was.
