Alcatraz & For the Birds
Day 15 Extra Credit: "Yes, the man is a tower of birds."
The above quote "Yes, the man is a tower of birds" came from the poem Farewell to Friends by Illya Kaminsky. The class was given this quote and asked “What does that mean to you?” We were given 30 minutes to write something. The first came to me within 10 minutes (for better or worst). I asked if I could write another, so I did:
Alcatraz
Confined in solitude a man looked out a thin sliver of a
window not seeing much, but captivated by a lone seagull
floating on air. Oh, how he wished – not to catch the
updraft of wind, making a companion of the bird – but to
captivate her, bringing her there beside him, to be with him,
to share in his loneliness. Yes, in truth, he was not alone
in his tower. His was a tower of birds - all held in captivity.
For the Birds
In the playground outside the church the chickens had
come home to roost, in a manner of speaking.
The man had roosted inside the bell tower, looking out
over the playground below seeing his collaborators
scratching at the dirt, simulating what they conceived
as the form of avian art they were destined to create.
Alas, the man discerned none of its namesake, save for a
lone gull bracing against the wind having strayed from her
usual haunts in the air above the nearby bay of Bodega.
Where were her companions? He wondered.
Did they assume they were but extras in the drama about to
unfold? From his perch he began to see things as they might:
Gliding down to roost in the playground by the church,
partaking in a scene of carnage and death, turning a site
of childhood imagination into a graveyard of ghosts.
INSPIRATIONS:
