My dad mentioned to me in the car that it was strange to hear the birds. It was strange to hear sounds you don’t normally hear, but that was the case now as the cars stopped driving and the people stopped walking (most of them, at least). You could hear the birds, he said, who were still living, still going on with their normal day-to-day lives. I wonder if they felt as if they ruled the world now.
Later, when I was walking alone in my old neighborhood of withered clay, I heard the songs and put meaning to my dad’s observation. There were more birds it seemed: crows and chickadees, stellar jays and robins; perched in the highest trees, tiptoeing the highest rung on the chain link fence. And now, in this afternoon jaunt, my internal compass must have heard the calls and led me to the diamond between a 3rd and 4th Ave. on 43rd St.
I was drawn to the scoreboard in left with the standalone totem up above, a huge leafless tree in the spring of its branches, bigger to me in my youth, where a tall prince of a ghost had belted a ball so high and so far that it scaled the top of the tree and never landed. The crow dove from the fence and soared around the bases, crowing and laughing, before it returned to its post.
I witnessed the ghost of mischief, thrown out trying to steal. “He’d do it again”, he thought, as he returned to the dugout, but not before the head coach scolded him for being foolish. An anxious robin went from center to left, where another robin drew a line in the sand, putting the visitor in its place. But worry not about the visitor. Tomorrow was another day.
I couldn’t help but notice, circling the dirt in bliss, the liberated spirit, the independent ghost. Who ran without aim. Without care. Without concern. Chasing the dust that he was creating. Hair covering his eyes. The mohawk on top falling down on the sides. A roadrunner blurred from one side to the next. Covering the bases in 60 feet bursts.
…
The day grows and the birds keep singing. Ghosts with new voices. Perched atop the highest rung as they watch over the diamond.