Breakaway
by Jill McCabe Johnson
A Steller’s Jay caught his tail
in the fishing line we’d draped
over our thistle feeder
to foil the sparrows.
I grabbed kitchen shears
and tiptoed beneath the birches
where his mate scrawed
warnings of my approach.
What is a pendulum,
if not the desperate measure
of each remaining
moment we share?
The jay beat his wings,
thrashing against trunks and
clapboard till his tail-feathers tore,
leaving this unwanted talisman,
bloodied & wry. And isn’t that
what freedom often requires:
the sacrifice of something essential
for a wingbeat’s promise
of light, horizon, and sky.
“Breakaway” was originally published in Page & Spine.
Nice.
You take us along on that thrash against captivity, that desperate urge toward freedom that every wild thing has – and how instinct moves always toward freedom, no matter the sacrifice.