Birds do it, bees do it...

AUDUBON BECOMES OBSESSED WITH BIRDS

because, as a prelude to mating, the male brings home a gift of food and sings;

because both birds & whales sing;

because both birds & whales migrate ergo birds are the souls of whales;

because you need a compass and a map to migrate accurately;

because migrating birds have both;

because the ancient mariners learned to navigate from birds;

because steamer ducks, penguins, ratites and emus, ostriches, rheas, cassowaries
and kiwis, Galapagos cormorants and a grebe from the Andean lakes are all truly
grounded;

because the New Zealand Takahe, the Mesites, the Rails and the Kagu cannot take
off either;

because the Dodo, the Mascarene Solitaire, the Great Auk and the Elephant-bird
might still exist today, if only they had flown;

because the Romans tagged their legs with coloured rags to tell the folks at home the
name of He who won the chariot race;

because Greek sages practised divination from the flight of birds;

because the Rongorongo tablets of Easter Island tell of The Rite of The Sacred
Birdman;

because the scribes of ancient Egypt saw Existence rise from Non-Existence in the
shape of the Bennu Bird;

because the Bennu Bird becomes the Phoenix of the Greeks;

because the Phoenix builds a nest of scented branches, starts a fire and is
consumed by flames;

because the Romans saw Aquarius as a heaven-flying bird;

because the Maya saw Aquarius as Coz, the Celestial Falcon;

because the ancient Hindus called Aquarius 'Garuda', the Birdman; vehicle of
Vishnu, the Preserver;

because these myths mix birds, astronomy and water into symbols of rebirth and life;

because birds know what time it is;

because vultures gathering indicate dead men;

because birds are like ideas they visit us fleetingly, then disappear.

© 2006, Andy Brown
From: Fall of the Rebel Angels: Poems 1996-06

On the wing

Absolutely X-Rated, mature audiences ONLY


A red squirrel sashays up to the bar...

Pink Squirrel suggestion thanks to creativelenna's husband
Pink Squirrel recipe.