! ! Two Birds On A Tree

Look at this old photograph.. some of these old photos look more ancient than their, what, hundred-and-twenty years; as if the very air was different, then? This one’s simply of two birds in a tree: one sits and watches; the other eats the fruits.. this moment, frozen, framed, in time, takes on the epic stature of a metaphor, a myth: what of the previous second in our passing time? What of the next second? Where have those birds come from, where may they go next? If we cease to patronise their ‘bird-brains’, see them closer to their God than we whose minds depart so far from nature… if we think they think, in thoughts which we may share – then, what are they thinking? what do they think of one another? I look again at the photo, speculate; the photo grows in my concern to some great tree of primal Paradise… the Tree of Knowledge, could it be? Is the one bird thinking, what a fine place this is to rest! A place to hide, if so need be, among its leaves; a height, an observation post, I still, the world about its business; in stillness, I a little nearer to God, just a little lower than the angels, without beating my wings to find a heaven above… Is the other bird thinking, what a fine restaurant I’ve found, that God provided; I so hungry on my way; how much I need to eat to give me strength for further flight… and have these two birds even noticed each other, and each other’s state? Are they two siblings from the self-same nest, flying together through their lives; loving one another until the last birdfall? Two rivals, just about to fight to death? Or, two fore-flyers of the same great flock, about to land and strip the tree of fruit, then rest, God-filled, to know Him in that stillness? These thoughts; an ancient photograph; now I wonder about the unknown photographer who saw the world, in two birds on a tree.