Falling off the trees like ripe fruit

I’ve come across two fallen bird’s nest, thankfully both empty, in the last couple of days. It must be the season to let the old domiciles go, fledglings having fledged and all.

On stopping to pick up the upside-down-tire-squashed one of the pair (right side), the Goateed Campus Traffic Officer happened to come by.

GCTO: “Taking that with you?”

Me: ”Um…yeah”

GCTO: “That’s art man, right there. We couldn’t make a thing like that. It takes a bird.”

The GCTO and I then rode our bicycles side-by-side for the next mile….

“You ride this road much?” he asks. “I love it, art’s everywhere. Look there. See those shadows over there under the trees? That’s art, right there! Man, it gives me goosebumps.” He shows me his forearm for verification as we pedal (he did in fact seem to have goosebumps).

He feeds the pigeons under the graffiti-ed railroad bridge we are passing under. He also assures me he only takes care of the “lovable” animals on campus (e.g. “Cisco” the quasi-feral cat at the Rec Center; “Chip” the squirrel who lives in the river oak behind the Administration Building). By the by, he also mentions that BB King said the Blues is beautiful music that can only been written by “Good people who got the Blues themselves.”

Who'd know a Bodhisattva Dr. Doolittle works at the campus traffic circle? Maybe the birds up in their nests.