Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The Flutter of a Swallow's Wing

So-o-o . . .

I got up early this morning to send my loving energy and do my part in the healing of the planet.

Then I went out to the farm to air out the house trailer we used to live in, in preparation for a prospective buyer's visit, and found inside: nineteen dead tree swallows.

A-a-aaaogh.

The impending arrival of the buyer kept me moving, running up the hill to the farmyard and rounding up cleaning supplies, and then Mom came with me so it wasn't so bad. We gathered the bodies, and swept and mopped and wiped droppings off the fridge, the floor, the counters, the walls. Mom said it was a good thing it was a guy coming, and I agreed, as long as he didn't bring a fiancé along. Could be a life-direction-changing experience, you know. "Oh, honey, we can fix it up, can't we?" (Door slams, his truck tears off with him staring after it.)

But the guy came alone, and he was quite a good sport about the little feathered bodies scattered on the grass and the pails of mucky water that he helped us dump out. I hope the trailer serves him well.

2 comments:

Madcap said...

I was up firing the grid too. Sure wish they could have staggered the time zones or something...

19!? Where'd they get in?

arcolaura said...

Well, the chimney cap had fallen off. We had taken out the wood heater, and that left a fairly short chimney, so I suppose they could probably see light down it. I even wondered if maybe a pair of them were getting in and out just fine, but kept raising broods that couldn't find the exit. Sigh. The guy seemed to want to commiserate, and said something like, "They're not so pretty when they're dead," but it wasn't the sight of them that bothered me, it was the guilt. Even lying dead they are still pretty.

You'd'a been up pretty early, then! I wonder if they picked the time to fit when the largest percentage of the world's population would be awake. Or of the world's 'Net-connected population?