A pair of purple-throated pigeons
entwine atop a post as our train
passes by. Their beaks lock beneath
unblinking black eyes. Breeze passes
over the feathers on their necks as
easily as water over gills.
“You’re not my brother, but you’re
like my brother,” says one passenger
to another. “We got to stick,
to cling. They say, ‘You understand?’
But we say, ‘You understand.’ That’s
love we got. These other fools don’t care.”
C.D. Panell has lived and worked and fished along the shores of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest for almost his entire life. He maintains a wildlife refuge for words that have developed consciousness at ElectricSoupfortheSoul.com. The fiction and poetry of C.D. Panell has been published in numerous journals and magazines, including Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Barbaric Yawp, The White Crow, vox poetica, Parting Gifts, and Tacenda.
