The world is a mask that hides the real world.
Thatâs what everybody suspects, though the world we see wonât let us dwell on it long.
The world has ways - more masks - of getting our attention.
The suspicion sneaks in now and again, between the cracks of everyday existenceâ¦the bird song dips, rises, dips, trails off into blue sky silence before the note that would reveal the shape of a melody that, somehow, would tie everything together, on the verge of unmasking the hidden armature that frames this sky, this tree, this bird, this quivering green leaf, jewels in a crown.â¦
As the song dies, the secret withdraws.
The tree is a mask.
The sky is a mask.
The quivering green leaf is a mask.
The song is a mask.
The singing bird is a mask.
Monday, June 06, 2005
flying free
Peregrine falcon chicks released
by Samuel Spies, 6 June 2005, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Richmond's youngest predators are on the loose. Under the watchful eyes of their parents, two peregrine falcon chicks were released this morning from their cage atop the First National Bank Building at 823 E. Main St.
To prevent them from falling or diving off the skyscraper before they were fully ready to fly, the 40-day-old chicks had been caged by a team from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
The best place to view the falcons is from the plaza in front of the Dominion building at Eighth and Cary streets. You can see a two-by-four jutting from the BB&T sign on the south side of the First National Bank Building -- that is the top of the cage. The two adult falcons frequently roost on the two "S" letters on the western face of the Suntrust building to the east.
A webcam of the nest site is available at www.mcguirewoods.com/falcons
