Lunch for Pigeons

Today after church, I was waiting for a woman to pick up some CDs outside the church. A man, middle aged, dressed normally, glasses, hat, etc., walked by about 20 feet away from me. Suddenly he turned to a wall and bent over. He threw up and threw up and threw up. It just kept coming. And he was turned to the side so I could see it all. It was awful. It was like watching a train wreck. I couldn't NOT look!

About half way through, a pigeon landed and sort of stood around waiting. I thought, No way. As the man continued to hurl, a few more pigeons flew down and joined the first.

When he looked up and started to walk away, the man looked at me and said, in a very Scottish accent, "I didn't drink." Like what? Like I'm judging him? I just shrugged like, "Yeh. It happens." He walked away.

Then I looked at the puddle of fresh, hot vomit and saw all the pigeons crowded around having lunch. Seeing them eat garbage is one thing. And seeing them pick at crumbs on the ground is nothing. But watching them dig through vomit to find the big chunks was enough to bring even this New Yorker to a level of disgust for pigeons. If someone offers you pigeon to eat, don't.