At the portal intersection of West Kennedy Blvd. and Dale Mabry I noticed a large, dark feathered bird clumsily making its way along the concrete sidewalk. He had a reddish crest upon his head and could not have seemed more out of place amongst the strip mall backdrops and loud traffic and aimless pedestrians and the rest of everything else completing the definition of urban decay.
The bird may have been injured as one of his long, stick legs seemed more awkward than the other and he moved gingerly while in pursuit of small lizards among the neglected landscaping hedges.
Hungry, lost and compromised, every desperate attempt to capture food was inadequate, lizards avoiding the meager thrusts of the beak, narrowly missing demise by finding refuge among the refuse, discarded and scattered throughout the forsaken shrubbery.
The image reminds me of the Japanese folk tale of a poor man that finds a crane in his garden with an arrow in her wing and nurses the bird back to good health. The very day after she flew off, a young lady appears at his doorstep and the two fall in love, eventually marrying.
This new bride had a gift to weave exquisite fabrics which they sold at market and by doing so became wealthy. The only requirement his wife had of him was to never look upon her while she was hard at work. His greed pushed her to make more and more threads and eventually his curiosity became too much of a burden, eventually breaking his promise to never look upon her in a moment of weakness.
You know full well what happens next (the wife flies away and with her went the fortune).
The bird at the portal intersection of West Kennedy Blvd. and Dale Mabry reminded me, in a very strange way, of our good friend 'Pops.' The dark feathers, the red crest upon his head, the limp, the hunger.
Perhaps this bird is waiting for rescue and to the savior the spoils of his talents.
The light turns green, the vehicle behind me honks their horn and I move on. I am in no position to rescue the poor bird or to have my greed and patience tested.
Today's Jazz Hands narrowly avoided a magic spell.
Day three-hundred and four complete.
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