WINDOW

 My favorite subject in school was the window

–––

There was once a pillow on a bed beside a window.

Every night a head would come into the room and sleep in the pillow's lap.

Every morning, the head would wake and leave.

The pillow remained.

Day in and day out.

The pillow would glance about the room and look outside the window.

The pillow would see the day brighten and darken; the nights pass; the seasons change.

The pillow would watch the trees greening and the clouds gathering; 

the lightening flash, the storms breaking and the rain pattering against the glass.

The pillow would see the clear night sky and the bright stars drifting.

As the head slept in the pillow's lap, the pillow began to wonder,

"Is this all I am meant for? Lying about in bed all day watching the world outside?"

The pillow began to feel something stirring inside.

One spring morning, before the head left the room, it opened the window.

Into the room a spry spring breeze came sniffing and exploring.

The pillow felt the cool air ruffle across the bed.

Then, as the pillow watched, a large black bird alighted on the window sill.

The bird tipped its head to one side and another and then, 

to the pillow's surprise, 

it hopped onto the foot of the bed. 

The pillow watched anxiously as the bird hopped closer...

    closer...

        closer...

It gave a sharp sudden peck at the pillow's case!

The bird buried its beak into the pillow and pulled out a thick tuft

of feathers.

Then it flew away out the window.

"That's odd," thought the pillow, "I did not know I had that in me."

The bird returned

pecked again

and again removed a tuft of feathers.

Other birds came and did the same as the tear in the pillow widened.

The spring breeze played with loose feathers, spinning them out the window.

"At last!" thought the pillow. "I have found that within me which belongs to the world."

Soon all of the pillow's feathers were released and carried off on the wind or out by the birds.

They feathered the spring nests for the birds and flew about among the trees' branches.

They tickled the ears of deer in the fields and the noses of children on swings.

They alighted on glittering streams and sailed off towards the rivers and the sea.

"Now I know who I am. I have gone out the window and joined with the world."

The pillow was happy.

–––

The head, meanwhile, discovering the torn and empty pillow case,

replaced it with a hypoallergenic pillow

and enjoyed the best night's sleep it had ever known.

–––

For Gwenda