Here’s my rough draft for today, Thursday 01.27.22.
Little Birds, Big Show
This morning on my walk around the Ala Moana area, I stopped a second to rest,
and as I looked up toward the mountains, I thought I saw
a group of three white birds break from cover far up on Tantalus.
At first they appeared only to be dizzying little dots,
but as I watched them buzz back and forth, moving ever closer,
swooping, circling, diving down then soaring up,
a majestic show of aviary precision, they grew much more recognizable.
The closer and closer they came to where I stood watching them,
the nearer they approached me in this morning dance of theirs,
the sharper became their shapes, the more hypnotic their swirls and whirls,
because my head had to move to see them now, back and forth, and around,
as though I were nodding some kind of approval of their graceful play.
And then, amazingly, all three of them, large bodied, one behind the other,
so as I could see their eyes, the texture of their feathers, even,
came, all three, shooting within fifteen feet of me,
all passing swiftly like rockets right over my head.
I pivoted to watch them go, but by the time I turned around,
they had disappeared, gone behind a mass of buildings and trees.
I put my arm up, raised my hand as far above my head as possible,
imagined for a moment that they were meant to do this all just for me,
and that in recognition of their performance,
I might have touched them as they passed
with my too late wave of thanks.
Lanning Lee 