A
Small Thing
May
13 2020
When
she said her grandmother
would
collect the hair from her brush
I
thought, at first, of a locket.
Saving
a part of her,
for
a lover
husband
future
son.
Or
saved for old age.
A
memento of when she was young
and
fair
and
indestructible,
as
the young are entitled to feel.
Or
perhaps for posterity.
Because
while memories are intangible
our
hair long outlasts us,
a
keepsake
we
can see and touch
that
lets us reach across time.
Instead
she
walked her brush to the front porch, cradling it carefully,
raked
the bristles of hair
and
let it go in the breeze.
Where
it was caught in the trees
or
dropped in the lee of the house.
Or,
like a tiny tumbleweed
sat
lightly on the lawn,
gossamer
tangles
catching
the sun
like
finely spun gold.
Where
it would be found by birds
and
used to line their nests.
A
soft bed of hair
to
cushion eggs
and
warm naked chicks.
Although
I may have been right about posterity.
Because
someday she may find a nest
and
see long strands of golden hair
woven-in
with its twigs
and
wonder at their provenance.
A
small thing, to consider the birds.
Who
build clever nests
and
mother their young
and
add beauty to the world.
Who
sing for us
while
asking for nothing
except be left undisturbed.
Another
podcast sparked something in me. I think this is one great advantage
of a non-visual medium: the words invite focus; while with nothing
to distract the eye, the visual imagination is given free rein. And
there is an intimacy to an audio podcast, the same as there has
always been to radio: you are an audience of one, and the person on
the other end is whispering in your ear. Which means that sometimes,
you feel like answering back.
This
episode is from a podcast called This is Love. We immediately
think of romantic love when we hear that word, but of course there
are also filial, paternal, and fraternal. There is polyamory and, for
the narcissists among us, there is self-love (I won't name names!).
There is also agape. And finally, there is the love between friends;
although English unaccountably lacks a word for this. But this
season, the theme of This is Love is none of these. Rather,
the podcast is all about love stories between people and animals.
Here's
the link: https://thisislovepodcast.com/episode-22-prairie-warbler
No comments:
Post a Comment