Breathing Room

Ruffed Grouse The buds let fly a pungent spring flavor, and the sunlight fanned across the bare ground for unperching. Restlessness crept in, a necklace around the male's long neck, below where his beak would open to sing, if he were the kind to sing. His back gathered itself to lengthen and widen. He needed more room now and soon found it in a clearing he had been keeping his eye on, with a hollow log planted at one edge. Now he had to wait only a day or two until something in the air called, Time! before he'd start to grow. His clawed toes prepared to tick on the leaves, his strut to shorten. His hidden shoulders would soon begin their burgeoning, beyond wings, into the great hissing ruff. The tail would stiffen, and within his chest new lungs would at last open. Now his pace would march him strut by strut toward the hidden music, to mount the hollow log, shuffle his feathered feet, and drum drum drum drum drum till the whole forest shuddered.Davison, Peter is the author of 'Breathing Room' with ISBN 9780375709371 and ISBN 0375709371.