As soon as I came home, the words rattled in me
To capture the moments when joyous and noisy, turned to eerie and silent.
The terrifying sound of all the birds leaving at the same time
The fluttering of a thousand wings – away, away to safety.
The ecstatic beauty of standing under a tree
With thousands of leaves fluttering gently down.
The ears pricking up with the joy of
Listening to hundreds of little birds chittering above.
All gone with the arrival of one regal hawk
The birds all flew, while the hawk gawked.
Without the rustling of the birds
Even the leaves stopped falling.
Of what use was this power?
When there was no one to exert it on?
It was a show of power so instant, so terrifying and so alien to the beautiful wintry surroundings, that I shuddered in spite of myself.
My thoughts swirled with dictators and their absolute clawing for this kind of power. Do people in power not want a happy, joyous populace? I thought of the happy chittering and camaraderie of the birds from moments ago and stood under the tree not making any noise, content to enjoy the sounds of life overhead.
As I walked back home from this eerie setting, my mind wandered to all the fittings of power and its lure over mankind. It doesn’t look like it will abate. Countries continue to go to war, and though countries may win or lose, the people involved always only seem to lose – their trust, their security, their loved ones, their hopes, their peace.
Nourish-n-Cherish 