Before Flight

It’s midday, the sin is bright and the pavement warm. You look around at the clouds, at the ground and all the houses that surround. To your right, on the side of the road you see something, a small creature, a movement. It is an infant robin. Tiny with a head that looks too big for its body, half closed eyes as it squints at you. No noises are expelled from it. The bird lies silently on the side of the road, not bloodied or beaten, yet it is obviously not well. You are not sure what happened to it, but you see it move so you know it must be alive. As you slowly transport your feet forward to the bird, the notion that it is diseased or will bite you slithers through your mind. However, the urge to help, to care about an injured infant, no matter the species, takes over you and you crouch down to give it a closer glance. There are no wounds you can see, so you think it must have fallen from the nest and was left. A tiny baby that can’t even fly will die in front of your very vision if you don’t do something. You lift the puny thing up in your hands, supporting its head. The bird looks at you, slowed breathing and squinted eyes. You want this bird to live, maybe you can save it, and you think you can. If you can get it to your house and set it beside the bird feeder so it can eat that should help. The plan isn’t thought out but you are desperate enough to try it. You might not even like birds that much, especially not a random one on the side of the road. Are these simple feelings your body has for most infants in preparation for you to be a parent someday? Does it even matter? What if it is more magical than that? Than the simple clash of hormones in that dome you call a head? The bird’s movements slow down, they become lesser until it is almost motionless. It looks at you once more, with those half open eyes, seeking comfort in last moments, before they close a final time. You make it back to your yard, still holding the baby in your hands. You stand motionless before the birdfeeder you thought could save it. You want it to still be alive.