Thank you, Erica Drayton, for featuring Leaves in Top In Fiction Weekly Magazine!
LEAVES
She climbs up into the familiar oak tree in the backyard,
and settles her aging, bird-like bones onto the lowermost branch.
Perched there among the leaves at that meager height,
she can see the entire landscape of her troubled childhood.
She survived it … but still hangs on
for dear life.
Dual personality. 1. elder human climbs tree. 2. avian bones: not human, bird, not happy with childhood. Either way, creatures have childhood. That both have "childhood" rarely occurs to thought process... or that both could live through turbulent time with emotion about survival. Nuthatches and Woodpeckers climb bark, down or up on the hunt. Do they struggle like humans learning to ride a bike? Is bark their only grocery or do they catch treats in flight too, like Barn Swallows? Now you've got me wondering about the others, who learn to NOT crash on a branch when landing, and plan how to hold on different diameter branches, or wires, or wild plants.... How do they plot/scheme their survival through swarms of tornadoes like we just had in Illinois, Indiana. 50 words carefully chosen... brain cells throwing those around all day. (You've done it again )))) )
I didn’t love the default phone ringtones. I edited a blackbird call and crowbarred it into my phone. Any signs of obsessiveness l’m counting on you to let me know 💕