double standards

i am walking home the other day on the usual route by the huge monsoon drain. the ground is wet from an earlier shower. from a distance i notice a crow on the railing up ahead. i remember thinking how pestilent crows are. such vermin. they are pretty noisy too.

i start to draw close upon that crow, and i can tell it knew too. i can tell with each mounting step of mine that the crow begins to think harder and harder on whether it should stay on that railing or fly away. i am getting real close by now, like, less than five metres. the crow lowers its perch, as if to say "come any closer and i will spring off at any moment." and that really intrigued me. for some reason it feels that i might not come close to it after all but instead step away, giving it space, and thus the privilege of staying its comfortable spot on the railing. however it must know that the chance of that happening is extremely low, considering humans like to walk in straight lines. crows are clever--it must have known this. this crow has the audacity to assume otherwise--that i would somehow defer to its personal space. outrageous! i am human, and i walk in straight lines. you know i am coming. you know my path will inevitably lead me to cut into your space, and yet you hope i mightn't. your defiance is respectable. but you look at me from the corner of your eye, judging me, assessing me, still trying to appraise the level of my threat to your security. compare your stature with mine; the weight of your arrogance is most impressive. but i am most unimpressed.

you are entitled to your right to life, but somehow i despise your want for the right to privacy. you are but a raven. you are harrassment, scavenger of the ground, carrier of death...; what is your justification for want of more than your survival?

then again, i am but a man. i am discrimination, destroyer of the earth, agent of murder, vessel of untruth, child of apathy, lover of gold...; what is my justification for want of more than survival?