Digging Bird
(Pipilo erythrophthalmus, eastern towhee)

We hear you calling your name from the verge, proclaimed boldly by a shy speaker. When you venture out, kicking with both legs for buried and chitinous treasures, your red flanks shine above white, with midnight black or chocolate brown above. But there are no songs about you, no poems, no postcards. Your brilliance is every bit the equal of bluebird, redbird. But without their brashness, their showmanship, you remain a well-kept secret, scratching your work onto paper of unyielding clay. Perhaps that’s how you prefer things.

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