Factory settings

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Nobody ordered the childhood.

The nursery was a loading bay. There were carton dimensions, acceptance thresholds and a rule that a new pigeon must not look new. There was no growth schedule. No juvenile support. No interval between delivery and street-ready operation. The supplier was not selling a life cycle. It was selling an adult appearance. One replacement body could even inherit an older account, along with the familiar damage that made a passerby recognize it. That ragged pigeon beside the bench? In the archive, it can be several machines performing one familiar role. The factory supplied the feathers. The paperwork supplied the continuity. The public supplied everything it assumed must have happened in between.