Thursday, May 20, 2004

A bit

My apartment has a lovely patio, which I like to refer to as my lanai, in the Hawaiian fashion. My attempts to resist the usual trappings of bachelor life have led me to put planters out there with flowers and vegetables in them. I have been enjoying my tea there in the morning.

Once as I was walking out a sparrow fled from under the awnings. I knew she was watching, so I didn’t peek around for a nest until finishing my tea. When I was done I looked, and there was none.

A few mornings later as I was sipping I noticed a smudge, not bigger than a fingernail, but somehow attached to a pebble. Something inside me plead for deeper examination, and when I looked closer I saw the tiniest egg, broken open, with an embryo in the beginning stages. I was horrified, and surprised to hear myself say aloud "I’m sorry".

I was with a good friend last night, the evening after the discovery. We unloaded some wood from his father’s truck, had a drink in my kitchen and ate dinner. We spoke, about important things as well as not. But the notion of the egg did not cross my mind then, and I did not bring it up. The impact this discovery had upon me seemed to have no place in my conversation, no ability to declare. Somehow, afterwards,that made me feel a bit like the egg.

2 comments:

barrie said...

That was beautiful. Like many beautiful things though it was very sad in an odd way. We had a huge storm this week and I found a bird's nest the next morning which had blown out of a tree. Thankfully any casualties had already either escaped or been eradicated by nature. I was glad that I opened the book on the last chapter rather than midway through. I had forgotten about it until just now. I thought getting rid of the zero after the comments invitation would make me feel better.

Anonymous said...

Flowers, birds, and trees of many types dot the landscape of the Hawaiian Islands. For more information on Hawaii, go to: http://www.aloha-expressions.com

aloha meaning