seams and stitching ♡ published

THE PROBABILITY OF BIRDS

1
Every morning the grandfather walks the girl to the bus stop and fixes his eyes upon the power-lines.

The grandfather whistles a lonely song, the girl standing silent with her breath grey, and he keeps whistling even when the birds do not return his song.

2
And the wife tells him, "It is very difficult to love you because you are a lonely man deep inside and I am leaving you."

So it goes. The wife picks up her belongings and leaves. He is alone. The birds return his song to him in series of windowpanes. A sequence of pamphlets filled with excuses. He lays down in his bed.

He picks up his lonely and tosses it out of the window. This is impossible, as his lonely was buried deep inside.

3
The girl reminds him of his wife. She reminds him of a windowpane. This, of course, is impossible, but he cannot compare the volts of electricity that make up her existence to anything other than the birdsong buried deep inside.

Her breath is grey. Her eyes are brown. She is a small wail on the corner of the street: waiting for her school bus, standing in cement boots, her chestnut curls funneled through a black hairband. Her mouth is formed like a bird's beak, but her grandfather is disappointed because she chooses not to sing. This, of course, is impossible.

She cannot choose not to sing. This is not by instinct, nor nature, nor electrical intervention.

The man's lonely is buried deep inside, he is holding the birdsong in his fists, and the girl is a windowpane plastered with excuses.

4
The birds are singing in electricity, and this is not entirely impossible, perhaps only half. Only a quarter. Only a decimal of improbable.

The girl is lonely, and the grandfather refuses to believe this is possible.

5
And the father tells her, "It is very difficult to love you because you are a grey girl deep inside and I am abandoning you."

So it goes. The father picks up his love and leaves. She is alone.

Nothing returns to her. She buries her grey deeper inside. This is completely possible.

6
The birds on the power-lines are lonely, in a way that both the man and the girl can understand.

7
And the birds tell them, "It is very difficult to love you because you are lonely and grey deep inside and we will not sing to you."

So it goes. The grandfather whistles, and the girl breathes grey, and the birds do not return to them. The wife does not return to him. The father does not return to her.

The school-bus arrives and the girl leaves the grandfather on the sidewalk. This is impossible, as her shoes were filled with cement.

The grandfather walks home and stares out of his window. This is impossible, as his windows are plastered with pages from pamphlets filled with excuses.

The birds fly from the power-lines and bury themselves deep in the sky.

8
The birds do not exist at all. This is completely possible.