A BIRD Summit or Could This Be the End of the World as We Know It or WHO Knows?


A short play
Written and posted by collectivist

(Two LOVEBIRDS chirp wildly)

EAGLE/ Hey, cut it out! This is no time for that.
LOVEBIRD #1/ We're in love. Stop hatin'.
EAGLE/ Do you realize what's happening right now?
OSTRICH/ No. Tell us about it.
OWL/ The humans are in a dire crisis.
LOVEBIRD #2/ Humans are always in some type of crisis.
ROBIN/ This is something different. Much worse. We haven't seen it this bad since that pandemic of 1818.
OWL/ You mean since the pandemic of 1918. Get your facts straight.
CHICKEN/ So, what are we supposed to do about it?
OSTRICH/ It's all fake news. Nothing to worry about.
OWL/ Denial is not a river in Africa. Get your head out of the sand.
EAGLE/ Indeed. You and Chicken, and some of the others, live on the ground with those humans. It should concern you more than us.
OSTRICH/ O.k. What's going on?
ROBIN/ Another Coronavirus pandemic, called Covid-19. Hundreds and thousands of them are getting sick. Many are. . .dying.
OSTRICH/ They get sick and die all the time.
LOVEBIRD #1/ More than that, they wound and kill each other all the time. Why should we be worried about this?
CHICKEN/ Let 'em all die!It means that more of us will live.
PARAKEET / Speak for yourself. Humans have been good to me.
EAGLE/ You pathetic Uncle Tom bird.
PARAKEET Yo mama!
EAGLE/Stop the foolishness, yall.. . .Anyway,  I called this conference for a reason.
LOVEBIRD #2/ I hope it doesn't last too long. My sweetie and I have other things to do.
EAGLE/ You need to get serious about this. It's not a joke.
CHICKEN/ Why, on Earth, would you worry about humans dying off? Your kind are almost extinct, because of humans. There are probably  more of you dead and stuffed and hanging on their walls than flying in the air.
Why should you care?
OWL/ This pandemic could change the world as we know it.
CHICKEN/ Actually, this could be a good thing. The transformation we've been hoping for since their destructive industrial revolution. The world will be a better place without them.
PARAKEET/ No, it won't. Some of us now depend on humans for our survival.
EAGLE/ That's your problem. You've been domesticated by them for many centuries. .
OSTRICH/ What does domesticated mean?
OWL/ It means you have been made dependent on them for your survival.
PARAKEET/ No more domesticated than a lot of other animals.
EAGLE/ But we are birds! We were created to rule the skies. We outnumber humans. We are the natural lords of the biosphere.
OWL/ Not really.
EAGLE/ What do you mean, not really?
OWL/ I mean, there have ALWAYS been beings on this Earth much more powerful than us. These are living, but invisible - unable to be seen even with your eyes - innumerable, often deadly forces, that we will never be able to totally control, let alone humans.
LOVEBIRD #1/ You sound just like one of those preachers I used to live with.

(A BAT flies into their midst)

BAT/ What's up, yall?

PARAKEET /What the hell are you doing here?

OSTRICH/ Yeah, this is  none of your business!

Everybody, EXCEPT the OWL chases it away. . .


https://youtu.be/9qqDuEP4okw

     


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