remember how you told me you’ve been sitting on your porch,
unable to work all through summer (how’s your family now? mine too is falling apart)
i am sitting on my balcony,
the city sounds are painful, except birds — swallows nesting
in the parking lot underneath the building — their circular construction
of salivary laminae cemented treasures.

do you know
that. the industry of edible birds nests have exceeded five billion dollars annually.
i have days where i can hardly raise my body. produce no sweetness, process no evil
this is what
small creates do. work, to reproduce the sound of their species, their miniature eggs.
their monetised grace
devoured