gathering feathers, forked & split, plucking out

The past week has been full of feather-collecting.

First:
Was in a run-down tree house in an over-grown backyard.

The space had light filtering through the dusty windows, spilling onto the warped wooden interior & tinting everything a warm ocher. Ancient wooden furniture and tattered papers littered the dirty floor. It appeared no one had been there for quite some time.


I exited the building, and as I mounted the wooden ladder and began my descent a great blue-gray eagle swooped down, its long wing feathers grazing my arms. I turned to watch and saw that he was in pursuit of a blue jay, its shrill calls obnoxious and piercing.


The eagle opened his great beak and I saw his tongue was forked. He flew gracefully into range and snapped his jaws shut on the jay's torso, severing it perfectly in half.

I finished my descent & proceeded to gather the feathers of the dead bird as the eagle watched from the branches of a near-by oak.


Second:
Was standing at the fence that bordered the property of my high school and the adjacent church's back parking lot. (I used to park there, just off of school grounds.) I was looking down at the mess of leaves and branches that collected along the fence and spotted a bright blue feather.


When I bent to pick it up, I found an entire blue jay wing in the leaves.

I began to pluck the flight feathers one-by-one, inspecting each closely before moving on to the next. The feathers gradually turned from blue with black stripes to red with solid black markings. Towards the end of the wing (the side closer to the body), the feathers were from an entirely different bird. I know I have dreamed of these very particularly-marked feathers before, but do not know what bird they are from (see: "Honoring the Owl"). The last feather remaining was growing in backwards. When I pulled it out, I saw that the black surface was dotted with hundreds of tiny red eyes.

I began rummaging through the leaves to find the rest of the bird. At some point, I found a severed head buried under the leaves.

The face was most definitely that of a man (I could feel the stubble on his face), his skin a sickly gray. His flesh was still very pliable, and I parted his lips to inspect his teeth. Each tooth had small buds on the ends, and when I scraped away the thin layer of flesh covering the buds, feathers emerged.


I gathered these feathers and left.

taming the horse

was walking through a wooded area much like mima's mississippi. while following the paths, i was told that the animals wouldn't run away if i was calm and present in myself. small birds crossed my path, as well as a pair of porcupines which danced around me in a clearing.



as they danced, their bodies transformed into toucans, their long beaks awkward and clacking.



i walked away after they dispersed and came to a clearing that ended in a ravine. when i looked across the divide, there was a very large animals with black and white markings.



at first i thought it could be a cow, but it was so wild. the thought of a great dane crossed my mind, but before i could figure it out, the beast leapt across the ravine and galloped to me, it's head lowered in a threatening way.

i could see he was a horse. a VERY large horse. i became aware of the forest around me, filled with many wild horses. this was a very important horse among them. he spoke to me, however i don't remember what he said. he was testing me.

he leaned down and bit down onto my neck. i was overcome with the smell of the earth and his musty sweat. i instincively returned the gesture, my mouth full of his skin and fur. i could see his coat covered in dust and fleas. i contemplated each individual speck for a very long time, his flesh between my teeth & his smell in my sinuses.

when the embrace ended, he knelt down and told me to get onto his back. i climbed on with a little difficulty, his size so monstrous even with him crouched. as soon as i was on, he stood quickly and broke into a gallop. i held tight to his overgrown and tangle mane, the gallop hard and wild.

we rode for a long time through the forest. once i started getting used to the rhythm of his steps, we came to the path that lead back home. my mother stood at those crossed paths, her will overpowering that of the horse. he stopped, and she told me to climb off and come home.

as i climbed off, the horse and i shared a gaze. while he still was wild, something in him broke. he turned and galloped back into the woods.

nests, giants, the starlings stayed with us

I was in a large one story house that sprawled out in all directions. There were many rooms, but one stood out the most. It had a very high ceiling and the walls were made of cliffs. On some of the cliffs nested shore birds, whose clattered at each other and stained the rock face with shit.



On the top of one cliff sat a giant gazing down at me. I felt I was not supposed to climb these walls, so I walked on down the cavernous hallways.



Suddenly, the person who was sleeping next to me appeared in the dream. We walked to a door that led out into a green courtyard. There were groups of teenagers throwing a frisbee and avoiding the small furry animals crawling all around the ground. I know some of them were squirrels & rats, but I think there were larger ones like badgers.



As I stepped outside, I looked into the trees that crowded around the skyline. Every branch was heavy with starlings, their golden markings shimmering. As my friend stepped out behind me, the birds hunched down as if to spring into flight. I turned to my friend and said, "Keep your spirit still."



The birds remained in the trees as we looked on.