Strange Solace

No one remembers when the statue appeared. One day it was there. When the previous day it was not. A small girl cast in solid bronze, maybe age three or four stands atop a large stone, balanced on a short brick plinth. She’s bent forward but her right arm reaches up towards the sky reaching out to the dozen birds which crowd over her head and on her back. No one can agree if the birds are friends or foe.

You are concerned for the girl. Unsure why has she has been cast in such an uncomfortable position with potentially malevolent birds in perpetuity. But, be reassured, the birds are helpful. 

When night falls, when the streetlights are turned off and the people are asleep, the girl casts off her bronze prison and the birds resume their blue black feathers and their curved red orange beaks. 

The birds shake their feathers and launch themselves into the sky, relishing the rush of air beneath their wings. The feeling of defying gravity is exhilarating. The air tickles the underside of their wings, adjusting to the slightest current or air pressure change. They dive and loop and spin with glee. In flight the awareness of the world is heightened. And when they have shaken off the day they go and help, they mend fences and fix rusty bike chains, they retrieve lost keys, and untie shoelaces, 

And the girl? Some nights, when she has shaken off the ache in her legs and back, she runs through the park, laughing as she defies gravity and swings as high she can. Her giggle carried away on the breeze. And other nights, when there is a particularly tricky problem, or the moon is especially bright, she stretches her arms wide until blue black feathers appear and she joins her birds in flight. 

Copyright: image by Photographer Unknown. Used here for creative, non-commercial purposes. Commercial postcard of Roermond, Nethelands. Copyright H. Timmermands, Roermond, Netherlands.