February 2026 - Vol. 23, Issue 1

Her unfurling of wings gave me some saline drops.

Hit the gate post until she remained steady and flew up to the mountain cap.

I tended to her and now she is home.

I travel my path to a steady foot tap; and, below me the swollen rivers flow.

With the cherry blossom alive and the warm bird breeze, I sigh a happy notion

That soon my special mountain will be bigger than the universe itself with a plethora

of everything of rainbow delight.

My school is in the distance where my teachers talk of kites and guinea fowl

As I absorb wise words from everyday photographs, I play songs in my mind.

My father works on the line most days sweaty and darkened by the Eastern sun

And I thank him for my freedom and resolve.

We watch out of our wooden slats, the many ties tangled up soaring above the forest

canopy, the kites with beaming eagles and crows, and I love them all, not quite the

real thing but showing me the way to life.

And when the school day is over I see that fish eagle poised ready for the bait in a

river where tired feet waded to be healed to begin a new life.

My life has already begun nursing the feathers and maws widened for the scraps I

feed them, wings delicately clipped until they heal and then I wait once more for my

birds to rise high over my special mountain and I am reborn

Once More.