Everywhere
Pam Avoledo
Land
We say she lives in the trees, gathering twine and twigs for her nest. We believe she’s a cardinal, whistling to us from up on high. We whistle back, mimicking the pitch of her notes. We’ve seen her fly back and forth, visiting us a couple times a week.. We hang a birdhouse on a branch, fill it up with seeds, for her and her babies. We warn her away from the owls and snakes and squirrels who are eager to take her away from us again.
Sea
We say she’s a mermaid, flapping her fins as she rises out of the water, twisting in the air, her long brown hair splashing water on the sand, searching for sculptures and shipwrecks on the ocean floor, her iridescent wings leading her back home.
Air
We say she’s in the air, burning our cheeks in the cold, a pressed snowflake captured on the glass screen door in our home, two hundred crystals spinning as she’s falling. We say she’s a raindrop, a tilted crown with ragged edges while she bounces into a puddle in the backyard. We say she’s a whisper, nudging us from the pulsing sun as we race each other on the dissolving pavement, calling out we’ll be right there, a slight touch, a gentle breath reminding us she’s not far away.
Pam Avoledo‘s work can be found at pamavoledo.com.
Table of Contents for A Formal Feeling