Very neat, Peter, a lovely tale.
If you like reading about birds like that, try to find Australian poet,
Robert Adamson's brilliant memoir, Inside/Out, in which he tells many
wild tales of his youthful bird keeping. Some very funny tales there,
although he was just a wee bit out of the ordinary.
Doug
On 3-May-05, at 7:35 PM, Peter Ciccariello wrote:
> Thanks Max, your snap [which I loved] brought this on.
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> My father raised racing pigeons
> Sleek and aerodynamic
> Mostly American Trentons I suspect
> Although I can't be sure
> I do know they were not Capuchines, fantails
> Or the oddly off-balanced Dragoon
> They were certainly not orange yet I saw him once feed them
> Rogue eggs, perhaps blue jay or trash starling
>
> One came home from a 500 mile race
> With a limp pinioned wing
> I watched him sew the phalange back to the carpometacarpus
> With a needle and a piece of orange thread
> Then wrap the wings to the body
> With a piece of white cotton cloth
>
> "Will it work again?"
> -"No doubt"
>
> I was standing in the coop
> Above the garage
> Looking through the wooden dowels
> Of the one-way latch
> on the entry ramp.
>
> "at least he didn't get the
> behind-the-garage treatment
>
> several weeks later
> the pigeon was flying again
> this time on a short jaunt
> from Bear Mountain to Port Washington
> when my father opened the trap door
> white clouds began to swirl about us
> and let them fly
> I watched the injured bird hesitate for a moment
> then soar into the brilliant sky
> It looped down and around several times
> then followed the brood
> As they reconnaissanced
> And settled into a tailwind
> They arced over the treetops
> And became smaller and smaller
> Until they were no longer there
>
>
>
> - Peter Ciccariello
> ______________________________________
> ARTIST'S BLOG - http://invisiblenotes.blogspot.com/
> PHOTOGRAPHS - http://uncommonvision.blogspot.com/
>
>
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta T6G 2E5 Canada
(780) 436 3320
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
I don’t need to
hold back here
in the union
of forms
Charles Olson
|