Do not adjust your eyes; those are indeed clear blue skies you’re waking up to each morning of your pandemic-induced global timeout.
And do not adjust your ears; those are indeed new trills, longer chirps, happier and lustier songs from a universe of horny birds no longer forced to keep quiet or compete with the toxic roars of jumbo jets thundering across their skies or the macho rumbles of mack trucks fouling their flyways. With their throats relaxed and energized, with the clear quiet air as their canvas, birds are singing their true songs this spring – sparrows, starlings, wrens, jays, crows, pigeons and, of course, magpies.
Yes, this new air is full of new song from creatures that until recently were forced into hiding to avoid becoming road kill or drowned out by the ruckus, the fumes, the noise we humans have been spewing out these past hundred years.
From wary coyotes sneaking back down from their hideouts in the drought-yellow foothills to roam the suddenly quiet streets of San Francisco, to curious sea turtles reorienting themselves on the lotion-less shores and empty beaches of Miami, it seems Mother Nature has sent a message for us humans:
Enough!
Time for us to take a seat and give the other creatures a turn. We have been ordered back inside the house. We have been given a timeout; forced into our rooms to face each other and ourselves; to think about what we’ve done. Now we will have to practice our instruments, redo our homework assignments, play inside. We will have to break out the Scrabble and Monopoly boards and play a few hundred hands of Gin Rummy with our loved ones. And, after watching everything Netflix and Amazon have to offer, even those lame shows we were sure we’d never watch, we will finally do what we know we must do, need to do and very probably want to do; we will pick up a book, a magazine, the sleeves of an old long-playing record album stored away in our garage; and we will, dare I say it, read!
And it will be o.k.
Why? Because the Spring 2020 Issue 9 of the Thieving Magpie is here! And even though we seem to be saying this upon the launching of each past issue, this one is really good! This issue contains poetry, essays, fiction and art from some of the finest writers and artists in the country and around the world. Funny. Provocative. Sad. Cozy. Liberating.
So have a seat. Take a cup of your favorite beverage, sit in your favorite chair, and find something to read. Open your windows and let in the scents and songs and howls of a new spring, a rare spring where we humans have been momentarily sidelined, forced to watch other creatures enjoy the game of life for a change. Let the dogs and the cats and the turtles and the birds do their mischief and engage in their mayhem while we ponder the consequences of our actions and think about what we’ve done. It is a once-in-a-lifetime moment.