Red Birds Will Fly Out of the East and Destroy Paris in a Night

What nobody anticipated was this:

That red birds will fly out of the east
And destroy Paris in a night

That they would flutter and flicker
Into homes
Where they would peck apart
Furniture
And cherished mementos
With no rhyme
Or reason
For doing so

That they would invade the theaters
And put on absurd puppet shows
That even the Absurdists
Did not find themselves enjoying

The red birds went out to the zoos
And taunted and teased
The birds in cages
That up until then
Didn't realize that they WERE in cages
And now feel depressed
And as a result
Will lose all of the pretty coloring
In their feathers
And perhaps that's the point

Since red birds
Are often jealous birds

These are birds that have come from the East
From the cold weather
From the mysterious forests
Where chirping will only summon hunters
And so cheerfulness means death
And so the deer and the squirrels and yes, the birds
The Red Birds
Are hard and cruel

They will fly over the Eiffel Tower
And relieve themselves all at once
So that, like a newly washed car
The beauty of the landmark
Will be marred by the sight
Of red bird droppings

This same fate will befall the Lourve
And the Arc de Triomphe
And all the cafes
And all the hotels
And everyone who was not warned about the birds
And finds themselves strolling along on a lovely night in Paris
Not aware that they will soon suffer
Such a traumatic experience

By morning
Paris will be ruined
Not in a demolished sort of way

But rather what it stands for
It's beauty, it's romance

Gone, gone, gone

And all because the red birds
Happened to fly west this year

Because they happened to hear love
And laughter
Coming from a distant city

And they had to stop it
So that they could continue to live in their cheerless forest
For the rest of time

This is how Paris was destroyed in a night
And although I wish I could give you a happy ending
I'm afraid there isn't any just yet

Not until a good rainstorm comes along
And washes away the remnants of the red birds
And all their awful deeds

Until then, the birds in the cages in the zoos
And the strollers who will never stroll again
And the Absurdists who stand under the Eiffel Tower will wonder
What it was that happened to them exactly

And many of them will spend the rest of their lives
Looking up
Anticipating
Something