The Woman and the Dove

They are knocking down the houses a mass of dust has filled the alley. The jarring noise of the excavator is maddening. The woman takes a ladle of steamed rice from the rice cooker pours it on the ledge outside her window. The familiar cooing of the dove sings in the woman's sleep. Behind the woman's kitchen window in the alley a few specks of droppings have fallen and a feather: a soft white feather...