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                                                                      RED-WING


    A bright and glorious day, a wisp of cloud sailing across the sky, a slight breeze ruffling the grass.  The young red-winged blackbird sits on a branch and sings his heart out.  Happy, so happy, he wishes he could sing forever.

    Spring begins its turn to summer, ushering him along life’s path, parents and young surreptitiously emerge from hidden nesting sites to form small flocks.  Summer flowing day to day, it feels so right, without a care, each day lived to its fullest.  What is tomorrow, or the day after that, if it is not here in the present.

    He and his young friends had heard tales of flocks, flocks so large that they blacken the sky.  They doubt the stories, but each dream of it all the same.  To be a part of one such flight would truly be the greatest event of any life.

 Then the first never-ending summer begins to wane.  The hints of the coming change bring a heightened alertness amongst the adults, a new restlessness, searching of the southern horizon.  To the young it seems something is silently passing from one to the next that they are not let privy.

    It is not long when a morning breaks beneath gray clouds, an unexpectedly cold breeze.  The flock, as one, leaps into the sky though no lookout had cried a signal.  The flight is straight and true, no stopping at fields crossed, or farms, marshes, and roads.  Each time he looks back the river of blackbirds has grown, it stretches almost out of sight.

    It seems reckless abandon as the leader began leading the long ribbon through huge loops and turns.  At first flying towards the sky only to plummet toward the ground before leveling off just above the trees.  Then starting it all over again.  Flying south the only constant, that and the following ribbon of birds.






Edited by Suave - 06 Jul 2018 at 6:55am

Now if only all of my birding books read like that. I see a new career for you!

This one isn't too recent, but I figure people here may have already read the most recent one I have on Kraxon, since it came out of the last SSC here. 

Edited by TheDustyZebra - 08 Jul 2018 at 5:56pm

This is my Round 1 Flash Fiction piece from last year!

tcFlash wrote: Have you been writing any flash fiction lately? Do you have one you want to share here? It might be nice to read what we've written without time constraints and prompts. I'll get us started with this one which is based on my own experience. For now, let's just share one story each.  https://letterpile.com/creative-writing/Crossing-the-Sands-of-Time-Reflective-Flash-Fiction