On the final day of the August Open Write at Ethical ELA, Scott McCloskey extends this intriguing invitation:

“Have you heard of the saying, ‘I was today years old when I found out about…’?  It’s what we say when we find out something surprising, something new that we’ve just learned…Think of the most recent (most interesting /startling) thing that you’ve learned…You could examine the fact.  Interrogate it.  Expand on it.  Or simply just share it with the rest of us.”

I return to the hummingbird.

Inside the Skull

When I was
ten or eleven years old
supermarket tabloids
ran story after story
of UFOs
and alien abductions.
I half-believed 
these ridiculously weird
narratives…
at today years old
I sit at my kitchen table
looking through the window
at a hummingbird
hovering in midair
like an otherworldly thing
looking right back at me.
I wonder what it’s thinking
this tiny iridescent creature
that mesmerizes me
takes over my brain
controls me for hours
compelling me to read
everything I can
about its kind
which is how I learn
a hummingbird’s tongue
is so long
that it coils
around and around
its tiny skull
and rests behind
its ever-bright
and curious eyes
-ridiculously
unbelievably
weird
I say to myself
as I lose all track
of time…

Resharing my photo of my hummingbird with her tongue extruded