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Innocent Captives
- Michigan State University Press
- Chapter
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10 Innocent Captives Captured blackbirds call their unsuspecting relatives to a feast placed away from fields of ripening sunflowers. On top of cages, brown rice glitters in toxic trays, a tempting easy meal. Poisoned. Ancient memory guides them each spring and fall along river valleys and wetlands where rich cattail marshes were drained and fertilized for increased yield and prized cash crops and condos grew. In August, heavy black heads of sunflowers give up their oil-laden seeds. Beaks, sharp and black, split shells, black hulls fall to the black ground. Pale kernels swallowed in faith to nourish the migration not all will survive to make the journey. Husks drop and rice scatters, as darkness falls blackbirds roost in a flash of black and red and they fall silent among the blooms. ...