Читать книгу Of Silence and Song - Dan Beachy-Quick - Страница 11

1.

On our walk my youngest daughter asked me, “What are the songs you don’t know.”

“That’s a hard question,” I said.

“Tell me the songs you don’t know.”

Silence was the best description.

On the same walk we found a bird lying dead on the ground. It had a long, dark, slightly curved beak. Streaks of white not quite white on the head, a color I might call dry wheat. “Not a woodpecker,” I said. Iris said, “Nope, not a woodpecker.” Not the right markings. The shafts of the feathers had no bright colors. I couldn’t identify the bird. A plover? A snipe?

Later I asked Iris if the dead bird scared her.

“No,” she said. “It gave me an idea.”