WINGED APRIL RIFF

There is a bird outback, species uncertain, pecking at seeds that have fallen to the ground.

Where will that bird sleep tonight? A nest, of course. Birds make nests, right?

That old Dylan lyric comes to mind, about how far the bird flies before it sleeps in the sand.

Do birds sleep in the sand?

How far does a bird fly in any day? How long will it live?

Most birds can live three to ten years, I’ve read, depending on all those factors you can imagine.

So where is that bird I saw now? Will I see it again? I’ll put out some seed. Seems birds eat a lot.

They say crows can recognize a person’s face long after they see it.

Will the crows I know remember my face?

That’s more than I expect I could say about a lot of people.

Birds.

I could go on about birds.

But I won’t.

Except to say — how blessed, to be able to fly.