Weird and Wonderful (January 1998)

 

​I sat deep in the gloom of my dirty little room.  A man sulking like a child, drowning in a sea of self-pity.  Through the dust, dancing on the sole beam of light, a shadow. A flickering, fluttering of delicate wings.  Then you chirped.   You lighted on the sill, your eyes nervously scanned the room.  And you sang, to my ears that longed for a melody of notes that would strike a chord in my soul.
 
Oh, speak to me little bird what brings you to my dismal little room.
Have you come to cheer me with your song?  To have me marvel at your delicate beauty only to have you flutter away.  Oh, I’ve seen beauty before and it is all so fragile, so fleeting.  Have you come to bring me cheer?  Or just to remind me of a life beyond the window, a life that I can not share.
 
Something possessed me to hold out my arm.  Motionlessly, without a whisper, I held my breath.  Your soft eyes sought out mine and you took wing and rested on my arm. I dared not speak, not utter a word.  Another living creature had stolen into my room.
 
You eased into that same haunting melody of chirps that seemed to contain a riddle. With words that seemed to form out of thin air.  What is it you sing, my dear little friend?  What message from the sun do you bring?  I gingerly reached out, with a tentative finger-tip, and caressed the nap of your neck. You stopped your preening. And sang to me. And the melody took form in my room, Weird and Wonderful.
 
Weird and Wonderful.  You seemed to sing.  What could you mean?   I watched as you preened.  Out of the shadows came your meaning.  Life is weird, strange, and capricious.  And I was too, for wasting my time in this prison of my own creation.  My room was dismal because I let it be.  My heart bleak, because I refused to see the sun.  And with that the light through the nearby window turned from a single ray to the dawning of a new day. I knew too, that wonderful was still a possibility in life.
 
Sweet little bird with feathers so fragile but wings so strong as to carry you aloft;
Thank you for blessing me with this time, however short, where you sang to me so sweetly.  I’ll always owe you every beautiful day that follows, and the reminder that though life may at times be weird, even cruel, it is at the same time, wonderful and filled with love and beauty.
 
I said, "Thank-you sweet little bird." As I opened the window and watched you fly away.
 

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