The Drowned Bird

My job

~Down by the water the riverbed~

~Somebody calls you somebody says~

~Swim with the current and float away~

~Down by the river everyday~

~Oh my God I see how everything is torn in the river deep~

~And I don't know why I go the way~

~Down by the riverside~"

I listen with kind ears sitting cross-legged on the surface of the river.

Sora comes thrice a week to sing to me, he cannot see me, but as he grows the more lovely his voice becomes. He's 15 now.

It saddens and gratifies me that he brings his significant others to me, or should I say my river, to 'meet' me, and appease me.

My job these days is protecting this river. It used to be a favorite place for suicides and murders.

With me here to protect all, there are rarely are ever deaths in this little village, and never one at my grounds.

"I can't do this anymore. He won't love me." a girl says stepping into the water.

-Who does not love you?- I ask standing and approaching the girl. She takes a step back seeing a girl wings and barely 10 in age, appear out of the mist that always lay atop the river now.

"My lover does not love me." she says moving further into the currents now that the initial shock is gone.

-I will love you.- I say opening my arms, unfolding the wings that now adorn my body.

"You can't love me!" she says refusing to look at me. I walk forward and take her shoulders in my grasp.

-We love all, I am simply a guardian of this river.- I say wrapping my arms around her and lift her up and out of my waters and set her on the banks.

-Don't waste the soul our gods gave you, you only get one.- she nods and I retreat to the river.

Ea is coming on his morning stroll with another child I found in the river, only Ea would know what it's like to care for one of us.

He whisks the boy away placing a garland of Honeysuckle and Black-eyed Susans into the calm currents if the bank.

Once they've left I take my offering and place it with my collection among the branches above my old nest.

I love my job, I can watch my loved ones as they grow and live happily. Or as happily as they can.

Thank you.