After eating our soft-boiled eggs this morning, I asked, “Want to walk to Melissa’s house and deliver egg cartons?” My husband said, “Sure”. He leashed up the dog as I loaded a bag with a dozen empty cartons. We headed a mile around the bend and up a hill to the home of our neighborhood “Egg Lady”. We pass her chicken coop on our daily walks. I left the bag on a wooden bench by her front door and we headed back down the hill.
The morning sun smiles on my bare arms as we walk back home. Looking up I see finches, towhees and doves swoop and soar around trees in the soft blue sky. I close my eyes to hear their songs fill the air. I feel like I am a peaceful cloud that moves in tune with nature’s loveliness. I exhale slowly and all seems gentle in the universe.
Then a loud, shrill sound hits my left ear. My eyes pop open in alarm and I feel a firm tap on the top of my head. I jolt to full alertness as my serene sailing cloud body disperses and disappears. It reminds me of having my day-dreamy reverie punctured by some nun in grammar school who slapped my fingers with a wooden ruler and left me feeling shame and anger.
I watch black and white striped feathers fly in front of me and see a slim mockingbird perch on a nearby fence, puff up her chest and stare at me. If she had eyebrows, she would be frowning. She seems to be saying, “Stay away from my nest.” I wonder why she thinks I am a threat. I am just a giant blob in a Springy turquoise shirt and pants. A little shaken, I continue on my way. A few feet later, I look up to see a large red-tailed hawk slowly circle lower and lower around a nearby tree.
I wrote a summary in this three-stanza haiku poem:
Mockingbird spies me,
Scared I will attack her nest.
Red hawk watches us.
Mockingbird dives down,
Screams and hits me on the head
Red hawk spies her nest.
Mockingbird mocks me,
Stares at me with warning eyes,
While the red hawk dives.
(By the way, this giant blob in turquoise prefers chicken eggs, Sister Mary-Mean-Mockingbird. Be careful who you accuse. You were distracted by me and should have looked to the sky for a spy wearing red. Unless you were protecting the chickens in the nearby coop. In which case, I am guilty as charged.