13 bold seconds of flight

alliyah wrote:

AnotherCrowInRow wrote:Random fact of the day: The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

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At one time or another you may have heard the claim, "A chicken can only fly for 13 seconds" or "The record for the flight of a chicken is only a few seconds" ...

but how many other flightless animals believe they can fly? (outside of humankind)

what chicken was bold enough to know?

what filled the 13 seconds when gravity disappeared, and life was unhindered?

who chooses who can touch the sun?

where would you fly, if you could only fly for 13 seconds?

This is a poetry collection about chickens, about flight, about hope, about dreams, and about the myth of gravity.

would you jump if you weren't sure?

will you read?

(one) heaven-turned, bird-watching
(two)
(three)
(four)
(five)
(six)
(seven)
(eight)
(nine)
(ten)
(eleven)
(twelve)
(thirteen)

heaven-turned, bird-watching (february)

Spoiler

The sun is bright today.

Once in a while, I will look straight at the sun. Only long enough to see if the heaven-bird is nesting there. Only long enough to pray. Only long enough to see if I remember how to blink. Only not for any time at all. Sometimes I see her, the moment I turn my head and avert my gaze. All those wings and humming feathers shining, reaching, folding, stretching, flying-right-into-my-eyes. But then when I turn again, she is not there. Only she always is. Only I can not see her straight on.

originally drafted 2.27.24