The Blue Jay by Emily Dickinson

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No brigadier throughout the year / So civic as the jay.

A neighbor and a warrior too, / With shrill felicity

Pursuing winds that censure us / A February day, / The brother of the universe / Was never blown away.

The snow and he are intimate; / I 've often seen them play / When heaven looked upon us all / With such severity,

I felt apology were due / To an insulted sky, / Whose pompous frown was nutriment / To their temerity.

The pillow of this daring head / Is pungent evergreens; / His larder -- terse and militant -- / Unknown, refreshing things;

His character a tonic, / His future a dispute; / Unfair an immortality / That leaves this neighbor out.

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