Wings in the Dark
by Beth Sherman
hen my daughter insisted I live with her, I refused. My own nest was happy slammed. Each straw and pine needle woven tight to make a whole. Pitch ready. Threadbare drift. She told me it wasn’t safe anymore. The time I forgot to look for worms. The time I flew too low, hitting the curb. I knew she was right, but I like flapping my wings in the dark.
At her house, I spend all day in the yard. Droopy beaked, claw heavy. Watching the sun pink lower in the sky. Talking to geraniums, to lesser birds.
Words play hide and seek in my head. I want to tell her I need to go back. What comes out is tseet teelwit.
She thinks of me as a blue jay–all turquoise flash. Noisy. A problem to be solved. Startling the squirrels with my raucous cries. But really, I’m a tree sparrow. Drab, dingy. My voice liquid warbling.
Mom, she says. Won’t you can’t you try to come on you should
Teelwit, I say, trying to sound polite.
When she’s not looking, I fly toward open fields. Marshes, meadows, streams, lakes, the very top of telephone wires. I roost in reeds. Nest in the hole of a dying tree. Wind tussled. Cloud snagged.
W
Author's Note
"Wings in the Dark" is part of a novella in flash I wrote called How to Get There from Here. It's told from two points of view—a woman with Alzheimer's Disease and her daughter. This story is from the former character's section. She is running away from her daughter's house, towards an unknown future. It was hard to get into the mind of someone whose mind isn't right and here, I tried to use poetry and lyricism, which often don't make "sense" in a conventional way.
Beth Sherman’s writing has been published in more than 200 literary magazines, including Flash Frog, Gone Lawn, Tiny Molecules, 100 Word Story, Fictive Dream, and Bending Genres. She’s a submissions editor at Smokelong Quarterly and the winner of Smokelong’s 2024 Workshop prize. Her work is featured in Best Microfiction 2024 and the upcoming Best Small Fictions 2025. A multiple Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, she can be reached on X, Bluesky or Instagram @bsherm36.
Permalink: Wings in the Dark