And They Flew

The evening before I left for the mountains, I headed down to the makeshift house to say goodbye.

More for me than them, of course. But I’d been watching their eyes gain light and feathers develop from tiny fibrous stubs ever since their eggs appeared, one by one, under the since-departed horse trailer.

I wanted to take one last look, because I’d already be under an alpine sky by the time they flew the nest.

Hopefully. I’d just seen a hawk escaping overhead with a tiny bird in its clutches, culled from one of the eucalyptus trees bordering the ranch…