Bird On A String

Bird on a String

By Boris Utan

Aaaaaaahhh!!! Another sunny morning today. My arms were still sore from all the flying yesterday. Mum says I need to join the crowd more. That I no longer her baby. Everyone in my age will be participating in next year's mating season. Mum says it's important for our species. As though we were extinct. I don't think we are. There's a flock of us here every single day. By next year summer, those from land afar would travel here, and some of us might move. Live would change, she says. I still don't fully understand what she means. I am happy here. She is too. Why do we need to move? Why do we need to change?

Mum tells me that I should clean myself and take baths to keep my feathers sparkly. That I should join my brothers and sisters to soar the skies. Yesterday mum brought us to the field across the tree where we nest. She let us walk on the ground and look for anything that would fill our belly. A big brother caught a well-grown earthworm. Mum was so proud of him. The rest of us scour the land but to our avail. We got only crumbs, seeds, and husks to munch on. Mum said things would get better once the humans recover and start getting back to their usual life.

I remember when I was younger. I use to see them running across the field. Some would hide, and when the others find them, they would scream and shout the same way mum does when an eagle approach. They seem happy to be scared. Something I will never understand. Mum says that they are playing. They use to scare me when they climb the tree where I live. They never hurt us, though. I remember Simon, a young boy from the rusty wooden house a block away from our tree. He used to talk to me and gave me corn whenever he comes over. I never understood what he says in his foreign human language. He always smiles whenever I reply in my own words. I miss my friend Simon. I no longer see Simon coming out of his home. It's been months since I saw him.

Since mum says that I might be leaving with my mate this spring, I'll pay Simon one last visit to check on him. The same way he had checked on me all these years when I am stuck alone on the tree. I have been to his home a few times before. I knew where he lives. I would sing for him from his window paint before he takes the big honey corn color bus.

I got up and fluffed my feathers. Today I will tell Simon that I will be leaving soon. As any other day. I join my siblings for a choir on the string along the highway. People who were passing by had their car windows up. None of them peeked or even heard our beautiful songs. All of them seem estranged and withdrawn. I don't understand what happened. Mum says that we made them sick. That humans don't like us anymore. I don't believe in what mum says. At least I know that Simon would not think that way. He's my best friend. He was always there for me. A kind human being. He is not like the others.

Others would shoot us from the sky. Some throw stones at us. It hurts when they do that. Mum always tells me to stay away from humans. They are a dangerous species. Worst of all, they don't hurt us for food. They find it FUN to hurt us. Big Brother Tah hates humans. His Big brother Tah's mate Kaia was shot from the sky last year while pregnant with their firstborn. The human laughed when she fell to the ground and cracked her spine. She was bleeding, and they didn't even care. They laughed and cheered before they left her to die on the ground. Tah saw it all from the top of a nearby tree. We had to restraint him from getting to Kaia. I still remember seeing tears falling like rain from his round brown eyes. I felt the hurt that he was feeling. We all did. It was inevitable. We could not fight with those grown humans. They are a thousand times bigger and strong. They also have this stick that shoots sharp stones that could tear through our skin. Most of the humans scare me. I never get close to any of them, except for Simon. He is the only kind human I've known. Mum says that it's because he is still untainted.