Flight

She didn't invent Florence. Florence isn't fiction. Florence is a real person – pigeon. When she met Florence she was a nine year old – a very lonely nine year old. Florence was not a common variety of feathered vermin. The kind of pigeon trapped and disposed of in the squares of ancient Italian cities, or squatting for free in an empty barn loft. Florence was a racing pigeon! Her wrinkled right leg sported a bracelet around its ankle. Her anklet moved when she walked pigeon toed. A pigeon with its own jewellery was an acquaintance of consequence. Approached carefully or perhaps viewed accidentally on purpose from a supine position Florence's anklet could be seen to contain coded information, like the disc on Voyager meant to explain the human race to other, perhaps silicon based, life forms. She approaches Florence upright and from the front. She walks, left foot left arm, right foot right arm, first one side and then the other. Florence is transfixed and then explodes. The pigeon flings herself up and into the sky wings beating in a fluid symmetrical syncopation – beat, right wing left wing together, beat – left wing right wing together. Standing – still - she flaps her arms up then down together, up then down together.