A Bad Day for Birds

A bird swoops in front of the car ahead of mine as I’m driving back home on 51. 

I wonder why birds swoop low across roads so frequently when it would be so easy for them to rise above the traffic and go about life as if we were just a bad, noisy dream.  N says it has something to do with air currents, and as I envision Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s daredevil moves and computerized images of air currents over cars in commercials, I see the bird pop out from under that car in front of mine.  It had flown too low.

The bird is doing a crazy dance, one black wing straight up, the other dragging the blacktop.  It twirls and panic hops as if movement itself can lead to safety or evoke a savior spirit.  I swerve around it and wonder which car behind me will end this story.