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A place of wandering and banishment for a long time; the garden was a place of rest for a long time. Tall grasses and a canopy of mango, mountain apple, plum, and banyon trees.

House


He lives in an old house beset by time. Over the span of years all went in until it was too much for the old house to bear. Floors and walls sagged and the man hired carpenters to add new wood to support the floors and walls.


The carpenters were done and he needs to paint the walk in closet. His wife picked bright red paint. He poured the paint into a sprayer and sprayed the closet and the walls of the room. The container slipped off the sprayer. Paint spattered. He breathed in mists of paint and it mixed with his saliva. Paint got on his hair and arms and his bare chest. Paint left red lines and shapes on the ceiling. Books and suitcases and portable closets had paint on them. He had painted the town red. The paint tasted like words.


Owl


She did not like her face. She took it off like it was a mask, and wore black clothes to mourn its absence. To herself she was an owl. She would fly at night in the light of stars and moon and catch prey. She hunted mice, lizards, and insects. She imagined she was hunting like the tiger does, but the tiger is a large predator and knows that to hunt big animals it is necessary to use light and dark. One night she was lost. The dark was too dark. There were no stars and the moon was hidden away like it had run off somewhere. She flew but didn't know which way she was going. She saw what she thought was the moon and flew to it but she was flying down and didn't realize it. She hit a lamp post. She was stunned and fell on the pavement for a bit, and in a pool of water she saw her face reflected by the lamp light. She liked it.


Parrot


There was something in him like a sad parrot. I once talked with him and said he would be fine when he was around thirty, because I read it in a book. That was a long time ago. I remember seeing him in a theater for plays, perched over a light board. He could make the lights go on and off but he had to repeat everything over and over. He couldn’t really control anything that way. He was being controlled by routine the way he had been controlled by the language that other people spoke.


One day a cat got him. It was twilight when birds swarmed. The parrot flew around and made a lot of racket. It sounded like someone was singing in the shower, the way he sang on the tall branches of the unkempt trees in the neighborhood.  There was a cat who watched his bright green feathers and the red and gold glints in the fading sun. The parrot landed on a low branch, and the cat leaped high and snatched him in mid song. The sad parrot is gone but the man is fine.


Antelope


She was an antelope and ran over boundless plains with ease. She loved the day and feared dreams at night because that is when the lions and hyenas could hear her breathing or maybe even talking in her sleep. She ran in the tall grass and was nourished by the sweetness of it. She was agile and fast. She was this way and it was helpful because she loved to be in the open where others could see her. Lions and hyenas would plan strategies on when she would show up to drink at the watering hole. But she slips past them.


Eagle


A man in a house was in a cage. He spotted an eagle. She flew down and had to hop into the house. Her talons clacked uncomfortably on the floor. The eagle took the cage in her talons and flew out the window and up into the sky with it.  It was extraordinary to be lifted up inside a cage and be able to see cars down below and the tops of buildings and people walking. The man saw clouds and then the tops of clouds.  He could see what the cage was made of. It wasn't too complicated, just wire mesh and a wooden bottom. Still, when the cage is put together it looks and feels like it can't be taken apart. The eagle carried the cage back through the window and dropped it so that it hit the floor. It was still okay, if you can call a cage you are in okay. The cage isn't permanent. He knows it is that way because he sees its shadow.


Feather Down


He saw the down of a feather floating gently in front of him. It was lightness and ease. Then he could see her carry the down in the palm of her outstretched hand, as it went in front and by and across him, then across the lanai and over to the trees.  She had golden hair and wore white. He let himself see her despite not seeing her. The down of the feather drifted and disappeared.


Sparrows
The brown sparrows, three of them, were in a maze of fallen trees. The trees had been cut so they wouldn't fall on power lines or on the roof of the house. Late afternoon light fades and lizards scurry out of hiding like they are words someone reads.


Tank
There is a woman who has taken refuge on a tank. It is surrounded by a mob. There are cries of angry people  from the rooftops to the street. Sticks wave like banners and beat on the metal sides. A poster of a stern tyrant is being pelted by rocks.



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