Reading Room
Evidence
2026We were all lined up in a rowalong the side of the highway:RVleaning hard over the edge of the shoulderpassenger-side wheel torn to shredswires and gas lines tangled in rubbertotaledFlatbed tow truckdwarfing our little camperdriver vaping, yelling into his phoneA newly dead cedar waxwingpressed into the asphaltsoft brown head intact, beak openlooking up to the leftwings spread out and downno bloodjust red-tipped feathers,tiny tangled feetMy feet in flipflopsdirty from hours on the roadsidealmost touching the birdsquatting down to look closerleft knee burning when I put my full weight on itaxle grease on my hands from trying to change the tire.I touch a yellow tailfeather.It yields to me immediately.The family carshuddering in the heatlistless kids, wrappers on the floorhusband on the phone with insurancewife in the passenger seatstray wires caught up in her pant lega ziplock bag of feathers in her hand