Dad’s Eyes

Have you noticed anything different about Dad’s eyes lately? Pass me the milk.

Uh, no. What are you talking about?

It’s like he’s here but he is far away, but at the same time he is more here than he has ever been. And have you heard him laughing lately?

Yeah, he’s been laughing a lot. Where is he? I want to see his eyes. Did you finish the juice?

Last I saw he was in the garden.

—-

You see him?

Yeah, I never noticed before. But yeah, his eyes are like super alive and almost, like, glowing. Also, did he have a bird on his head when you saw him?

No. What!?

Yeah, he had a blue jay chilling on his head. He was doing archery. The bird flew away each time he shot an arrow, then it just flapped back down and stood there, on his head looking around. Then it stayed on his head as he went to collect his arrows.

Crazy, I gotta see that.

He told me a story, kinda like a poem. He said it was prose.

Yeah, prose? What about?

Something about talking birds down by the river. How they love each other. He was crying, but smiling. He gave me a big hug, and that blue jay hopped off his head and landed on mine.

Woah!

Yeah, it felt a little scratchy and scary, but also really nice.

I wanna go see!