* * *
Birds of Kuwait
The birds here have a feral look
as though the will to survive
the shriveling desert heat
had driven from them
all the daintiness which we associate
with smaller winged creatures.
The birds flutter plentifully
among the stuccoed mansions
of our dusty street,
but I have no idea
what it is that they live on
as I have never seen
a worm struggling along
even after a cloudburst
and the brown ants,
though abundant,
are small, and yet they somehow manage
to keep spiraling themselves
into the particular
existence for which
they have been formed.
Their skittering retreat
when we come too close
has a desperate defiance
as does their unending call.
* * *
Rois M. Beal grew up in Georgia but has spent most of the last two decades in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, working in embassies and as a language teacher. She attended the Voices of Our Nations (VONA) summer fiction workshop, and her work has appeared in the Washington Post and African Voices. She lives in Belgium with her husband and three daughters and every imaginable kind of chocolate.
featured photo by Rois M. Beal “Kuwait, August 2020”
