Rachel Fite – Clown (SOLD)

Artist Initiator: Rachel Fite
Title: Clown
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size:
Price: $485

Author Responder: Arthur Cabral
Title: Clown
NFS

I can. I will. I must.

The bird is not cuckoo but is determined to silence the naysayers. Some of which are his parents, who immigrated, not migrated, from the motherland. His father says it’s unimaginable, his mother says it’s unobtainable, and the rest of the herd says it’s unnatural. In other words, it’s heresy to think an ostrich can fly. However, the bird pictures it. He’s dreamt of soaring leagues above the earth with eagles and vultures. And why not? They have matching wingspans, after all. That, paired with his God-given talent of being the fastest bird on land, makes him believe he can take flight to escape the enclosure of complacency. But his fellow captives aren’t the only ones who doubt him.

“Hey, Big Bird, why don’t you save face and just bury your head in the sand. My Insta-fans are waiting,” shouts a zoo onlooker from the cement plateau.

Hearing that irked his feathers. He is not a Muppet or an idiom or fodder for someone’s social status. He’s no dummy and gets it. They’re only here to watch his attempts at flight fail. Like when he careened into a plexiglass window or torpedoed into the moat. But like the autumn sheds its past, so does the bird leave behind its previous attempts. He reminds himself that his ancestors survived and evolved for millions of years. With enormous confidence, he stares down the heckler.

He finds his lane and reverses his tail to the faux rock wall. He paws the rutted ground while chanting his mantra. He launches into a sprint, leaving behind a plume of dust. Ten MPH. I can no longer sit here with fellow ostriches who are okay with their lot in life. Twenty-five MPH. I will leave a legacy for the millions of generations to follow. Forty-three MPH (top speed). I must prove to the cynics that the ostrich is the greatest bird in the kingdom. Forty-five MPH! With wings flapping, he no longer feels the ground underneath him. I am bird, hear me squawk!

The crowd watches in horror when he crashes into the perimeter wall for the umpteenth time. An ecstatic voice giggles from a nearby stroller, “It silly, Dada. Again!”

Copyright © 2024 by Arthur Cabral