In my youth, I witnessed two Blue Jays that would periodically divebomb my next-door neighbor’s part-Persian cat as she lay quietly, pretending to sleep on the asphalt driveway. In later years, I watched two French Pygmy Bats as they hovered over a Tortoiseshell cat as she lay quietly on a perfectly mowed lawn. I assume some of the Pygmy Bats must have met the same horrific fate as did a few of the Blue Jays that were eventually shredded into bloody feathered pulps. Both of these very different species must have known the risks… So why?

I.

From
Their high perch
Upon
A sweetgum tree
I once observed
Two American Blue Jays
As they swooped
Down,
One after the other,
To the asphalt driveway
Of that cozy home
Sub-urban...
Their iridescent
Blue wings
Flapping
Frenetic…

II.

Across the Atlantic,
Many years later,
From the high branches
Of a silver fir,
I was astounded
To witness
Two French Pygmy Bats
As they fluttered—
More like Monarch butterflies
Than Blue Jays―
Each circling
And then re-encircling
The other,
Down
To the green lawn
Of the Manoir
Manicured…
Immaculate.

III.

Many times
I saw those Blue Jays
Scan the landscape,
Their sharp eyes
Darting…
Daring…
I overheard
Their sarcastic voices
Cackling
As they appeared
To tease
All those beasts
Below them
Who did not possess wings
And the freedom
To fly…

IV.

And in later years,
I observed
The weird
And contorted faces
Of Pygmy Bats
As they flouted
Their pug noses
In derisive
Echolocation…
In appearing
To crack jokes
About all
The pathetic beasts
Around them―
Whether human
Or not…

V.

Beneath blue skies
In the mid-afternoon
I witnessed
Those two Blue Jays
Cackle high
In the sweetgum branches
Before they
So suddenly cried out
In wild kamikaze shrieks
And then divebombed
Over fallen star-shaped leaves
Of purple, orange, and red,
In a loop
Just above
A part-Persian cat
With her fluffy
Gray and black
Streaked hair
As she lay on her back
Without moving
On the warm asphalt—
Pretending to doze…

VI.

And many years later
In that twilight moment
Entre chien et loup―
I witnessed
Those two Pygmy Bats
That appeared
To whisper
In sheer silence
As they fluttered down
From the fir trees
Over a different
Furry creature—
Murmuring
Sweet nothings
For which we humans
Do not possess
The privilege to hear
Or comprehend.
This time it was
A Tortoiseshell cat
Who, much like
That part-Persian cat,
Lay upon
Her arching back
In the freshly
Mowed grass
Pretending
To sleep…

VII.

It was not very long
Before serious
Questions arose
From the depths…
Densely incoherent…
Of my cerebral
Domain.

What the hell was it
That had come over
The very different brains
Of these Pygmy Bats
That led them to play
Almost exactly
The same kind of game
That those Blue Jays
Had once played
With another kind
Of furry cat?

VIII.

From worlds divergent,
These two species
Had evolved,
Strange and estranged,
In very different climes
On very different sides
Of a lopsided planet,
Where both creatures
Were maligned
In innumerable ways
By our human
“Civilization”…
Apathetic…
Indifferent…

And yet, despite
The vast differences
In their being
And becoming,
And despite
Their varying brain waves
And intelligence quotients,
Both beasts
Learned to play
Almost
The very same kind
Of dangerous game
In their universes…
Parallel …

Certainly both
Of these species—
Cackling Blue Jays
Silent Pygmy Bats—
With their very
Different DNAs—
Must have known
That they were playing
An essentially
Pre-fixed game
In which the two cats
Were very eager
And willing to play…

After all, the odds
Should have been evident:
With time on their side
The cats could never lose
Even if they did not
Always win
After so suddenly
Awakening
From playing dead?

IX.

Was it a show-off test
Of daredevil bravery?
Or sheer fool-heartedness?
Or was it just something To do
Because there was nothing
Else to do
Except fly back to the nest
And warm blue eggs
Until they hatched?
Or else cuddle snug
Upside down
In the wooden rafters
Of the nearest
Human porch?

Or maybe
There was another
Possibility:
Perhaps,
American Blue Jays
And French Pygmy Bats
Had both invented―
Quite spontaneously
Without any form
Of collaboration―
A self-generated version
Of “cat and mouse”
That was simply
A new edition
Of a dangerous game
That the two species
Could now play
With idle cats—
In boldly replacing
Shivering rats?

X.

So what the hell was it
That made such creatures
So unlike each other
Take the outrageous risk
Of plunging
Into the bodily spheres
Of influence
Of these part-Persian
And Tortoiseshell cats
And thereby risk
Being snagged And shredded
In a supersonic flash
By their razor-sharp claws?

Or perhaps,
One should ask
The question
With much greater
Precision:
“How many swipes
Of a lazy feline’s paw
Does it take to prevent
An American Blue Jay
Or a French Pygmy Bat
From ever again
Attempting to ridicule
Those woolly, wing-less,
Land-bound creatures
Of differing colors
And stripes
Who lie motionless
In each
Of their universes
Parallel?