Micro fiction by Colleen Addison 

If We Were Reborn As Peregrine Falcons

Imagine soft down on our chests, plumage on our backs. Imagine our heads beaked, keratin claws crowning our feet. Imagine tail-feathers, our hips and bones fused gently so we can fly. Imagine the currents of air, ourselves newly aware of these, newly cognizant of the wind. Imagine us, lifted up, each layer of airstream bearing us towards the highest part of the convex sky. Imagine our wings flapping once, and then a soar. Imagine swoops and dives and the twirl-swirls of our bodies through the air. Imagine a quick low skirting through city park trees, around benches. Imagine dips and darts, a playfulness as we slip around skyscrapers. Imagine our falcony giggles, our birdlike fun. Imagine our aerie homes on the roofs of skyscrapers, atop the tallest arches of bridges. Imagine the two of us, our hearts expanding expanding expanding the way they are now but bigger. Imagine our wings spread wide, every feathery part reaching out as far as it can. Imagine the heavens around us, all that space, that wide spaciousness. Imagine how far our hearts have opened and still the tips of our sharp pointed wings are touching. Imagine our amazed astonished delight remade in bird form. Imagine wonder. Imagine joy. Imagine me and you in love, our arms wrapping around each other, both of us saying the words, both of us repeating them, I love you over and over, all of this as we take flight.