6.47pm the birds are back. they fly in swarms over my skylight windows, temporarily painting the sky black, letting streaks of evening grey through.
6.54pm their collective chatter is comforting and familiar. i am happy my background soundscape is filled again with nature's sounds, in overdose. drowning out the inane sounds from the television, drawing me out of my trance and into the world outside my window. a veritable conference of birds.

6.57pm the phone rings and a dear and distant friend calls to make an appointment. catch up tomorrow night, before the bass drowns out our speech and fills our spines and spirits. more familiar things to bring me back to myself.

i lie belly down on the carpet, eyes on the green turning brown outside my window. the birds are restless, jumping and twitching and chattering like there is no tomorrow. at first i thought it was hundreds, then i thought it was thousands. they own the trees. 3 trees at the most. jostled together, filling the trees with jubilant twitter, a cacophony of sound. now i think it must be a million. the trees are strong to hold them all.
children walk under the trees and vie for attention. they yell and squeal. the birds reduce their decibel for a moment as if to listen. the children walk on, the birds resume their boisterous conference.
how many more days until they leave my trees again. where will they go? back to familiar lands for the winter?
where am i going.
back into familiar things, familiar friends, familiar sounds, familiar chatter - will do very nicely for now.

Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw,
And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:
Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide
Return and back into your Sun subside