This is the time of year when the starlings flock.

I can’t help but inspire deeply and quickly

with quickened heart, and smile

when they are wakening in the morning,

firing from their eaves

or whatever lodgings they’d been hiding in,

waiting to ambush our very existence at first light

loudly – insistently – rousing each other and

anyone lucky enough to have an open window, able to enjoy the event with

a morning coffee.

But I love it best when

starlings flock at dusk,

when the crescent moon reclines and

the sky comes into lavender blue perfection – the hue

of periwinkles and heliotropes.

Singing, they flock and gather… a blanket of dreams o’er a cloth of day’s tales,

a thrilling signal that all should hurry

home for nightfall –

hurry home to loved ones and favorite places.

Evening, now, goodnight.

-kathleen c cooper. october 1, 2012