Birdlady

She loved birds

Audubon pictures of:

red winged blackbirds
bluebirds, her favorite
finches
orioles
cardinals
blue jays
starlings
woodpeckers and
nightingales

printed on sugar packets
inside a milk glass jar
on her kitchen table

such a treat for six year-old hands to open
pretending it was birdseed
that we put into our tea

those six year-old hands are almost forty now
I look at them and they don't seem like they belong to me
out the window a cardinal pecks at some unseen prey
I rip open the packet and pour the seed into my cup

I am flown back to her turquoise kitchen
remembering the milk glass jar, the "bird sugar"
those strong arms folded over her calico apron
soothing like the coos of a mourning dove

perched against the counter
eyes fixed on the specks in the clear blue beyond the window

"You know why I love birds, Treela?
They are the luckiest animals. I want to be like them so that one day
I can fly away too."

(c) 2007 with all my love to you, Grandma. I know you are up there, flying high and loving those wings!