How the owl came to know death

1

Today i feel uneasy. I’ve been waking up late, staying up late, showing up late. Sometimes my thoughts even come in late. All I want is to be on time for once. Just when I need it.

Maybe if I was there for myself every time I needed, just when I needed, something would change. Lately life just feels the same. These were some of the things the boy told himself. He thought he was alone.

2

This poor young man. I had been trying to reach him for months at this point. In songs. In movies. However I might get through to his brain that I’m here to help, that’s literally what this whole thing is about. His heart listened, but he wasn't listening to that either. Have you ever tried guiding someone who literally won’t look up from their phone unless it is to look at another screen? Well, that might not be the problem. It’s not too hard to work messages in that way, but he never actually pays attention to anything. It’s all distractions. Distractions from the pain, distractions from the joy, distractions from the world. You could feel everything you ever needed or wanted to feel by typing it into your phone. So then the brain started to grow numb. It started to look to the screen before it looked to itself. It started to settle into to the universe designed just for it. It started to sell it’s future.

3

Most are uncomfortable with death. They don’t see time the same way I do. They don’t see your spirit the same way I do. They aren’t aware in the same way I am. It’s ok, I understand. The least I could do is give them a heads up.

4

Owls make many types of sounds, sounds for calling other owls, songs for singing to other owls, songs for singing to non-owls, and sounds for letting you know of important transitions to come. Songs for death. It’s a bit of a heads up, that’s all.

5

I could hear the Guutgunuuxs

I could feel it.

I just couldn’t see it.

But I knew it was watching

6

Owls remember the way. Owls remember what the real people look like, what they feel like, what they sound like, the things they do. They have been watching me for sometime now. I’m trying to feel it again. The freedom.

7

The owls knew the future before we did. Well, they knew the future the whole time. They let us know what was coming, but they couldn’t do much to help. None of us could. They saw the sickness travelling great distances, they saw it coming the whole way, they warned each other. A great constellation of owls hooting to one another all the way from the sun’s ocean to the moon’s.

8

Tell the people to prepare, to prepare, to prepare. Prepare your spirits, most of all. Protect yourselves, protect your people, stick to yourselves, stick to your people, the sickness is spreading. Prepare for a long period of sickness, or stillness.

These were some the messages the owls were hooting into the galaxy.

9

Every circle must close. Otherwise it would not be a circle. It would be a spiral. It would be a tornado, maybe even a hurricane. It must be a circle. The circles don’t ever leave. They just keep going. Time folds upon itself a new layer, all while the owls watch from the top of a large cottonwood tree.