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ONE-LEGGED BLUE JAY

by W. Mahlon Purdin

Can you imagine
Being a blue jay
With one leg?
He hopped up onto the
Feeder in my window:
An old, one-legged blue jay.
He hopped around
Like all the others.
Pecked at the corn,
Like all the others.
And when he flew away
His one leg disappeared
Into a feathered flurry,
Like all the others.
He had no crutch,
No wheelchair,
No sense of incompleteness.
He looked at me with
Two-legged defiance,
Like all the others.
But, I loved him
Most of all.

11/10/1978

Posted on 11/12/2006
Copyright © 2026 W. Mahlon Purdin

Member Comments on this Poem
Posted by Angela Nuzzo on 11/13/06 at 06:02 AM

Everyone loves the underdog because everyone feels that, at one time or another, they themselves have been in that same place. Nice imagery.

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