Crawling or Falling into Meant-to-Be Crevices

My house has opened up it's crevices to a number of beings over the years.
The laundry has had mice.
The attic has had squirrels. The basement has concealed stray dogs...and cats.

A few years ago, blackbirds had nested in the eaves.
A baby black bird fell from the nest & became trapped within the lathing and support beams of my walls.
It was late, I was home alone & over the hum of my sewing machine, I could hear the sound of despair.
Doing what all sane & rational women do after midnight when confronted with an unending sound of wild infancy, I started cutting holes in the wall.
By the time my husband came home, he found me armed with a flashlight and saw... still no closer to finding this baby.
He discovered that not only had the baby fallen in between the walls, but down & in between the joist of my first and second floor.
Eventually, we did get the baby bird out & before you know it, I was feeding this little ole black bird with a syringe. She/he/it lived with me for almost 3 months.
The next spring I was sleeping and awoke to a strange sound. I opened my eyes & looked up.
Perched atop of my headboard was a blackbird looking back down at me.
I sat up...'Hey, how'd you get in here?'
It flew to my mirror and let out a little whistle, reminiscent of the one I had sing-sang the year before.
I laughed out loud and got out of bed...'Its you, isn't it?'
It flew back to my headboard.
I went to my window, removed the old metal screen screen & cranked it fully open...
'It's good to see you silly bird, but you gotta go.'
And a whistle or two later...swoosh!
Out the window he went.
Later, I told my husband & he laughed 'You're making that up!'
Laughter, 'No, I am not.'
'How did he get in...you said you had to remove the screen.'
'I don't know. I did remove the screen, maybe he squeezed in.'
More laughter...'You were dreaming or something!'
A couple months later, he was up in the attic...moving furniture and called for me.
'Show me, where all did that bird fly?'
I showed him...from here on the headboard to there & then back to here, then out through here.
Laughter, 'I'm sorry I didn't believe you ... I really thought you were just dreaming or something.'
More laughter, 'It's okay. Why do you believe me now?'
'It left a gift on the back of the mirror.'

Yep, this house, has opened its crevices to a number of beings over the years.

So, as I sat in the den & heard a falling, scratching metallic sound...I knew.

I turned the dogs out and walked each room, turning off all of the ceiling fans.
I opened the front door...just in case.
I grabbed a towel & went to the sooty door of my wood burning stove.

I held the towel just so & turned the lever.
I re-situated the towel & pulled the door open.
He flapped his wings frantically right out at me & I quickly wrapped the towel loosely around him.
He fought me, then he froze.

I went out the front door and sat on my porch swing, towel cradled close to my chest.
I bent over, lowering towel to the wicker table and began to slowly peel the corners back.
In the blink of an eye...swoosh!
He was outta here.

Some folks may perceive birds in the house as an omen of death or some other old wives tale of ill fortune.
To me, it's just a reminder that this old house opens its' crevices to all kinds of beings... and that spring is all around us.

Strangers on the Black Asphalt

Sometimes standing on the black asphalt and sometimes sitting, bent at the knees where he rested his elbows, he held onto his cardboard sign.
Sometimes I would see him walking up the overgrown hill behind the gas station using his makeshift sign as an umbrella in the rain.

Oliver once found one of his old discarded signs and brought it home to frame.

'Veteran. Homeless. Need Heart Surgery. Will Work Fore Money.'

Oliver said that the extra 'E' in 'Fore' , the water-logged cardboard dried by the sun & the roughly torn edges was an artistic reflection of our American culture.

One day the Sheriff came knocking on the door. He wanted to know when we had last seen the old man with the sign. It had been an unusual cold & snowy spell, so it had been a few days.
Shortly thereafter the maintenance man told me that he had found the homeless man in the electrical shed & he had apparently died of a heart attack.

Nowadays, there is a man who frequents my exit ramp with his dog & his cardboard sign. Several months ago, I took him a collar and a leash. More recently, I passed a doggies sweater and collapsible canvas dog food bowl to him. I could have taken him many more dog supplies, but instead I have a cardboard box in my trunk, within which I keep a forty pound bag of food and a scoop.

I have seen him...
crawl the hill and into the woods behind the gas station.
I could give him a lot more.
But to give him more than he can carry would be to give him a burden.
Sometimes the weight of one's own shoulder's is heavy enough...