Hurt is a funny thing

I lost another rooster yesterday. It never seems to end. Losing one of my birds is always painful. This time, I watched the drama turn harsh...suddenly, there was only Nature. The supreme law revealed itself in an image of a golden ray of Sunlight with four legs and a coyote's tail. The streak of light was very brief but very bright and was underscored by a thin black line made of feathery ink. The whole thing was like watching a stroke of the brush upon the canvas of my mind. The paint was wet and flowed with grace then quickly became surrounded by the other colors from the richly diverse palette of chaos, confusion, violence, calm...and, then a big silence. The cycle has completed itself and must now start again. Time stops and for a brief moment there is a sense of relief that we are getting closer to something...but, we can't see what it is. Hurt is a funny thing. It is the only thing that makes us stronger.
There is always something eerie about a last photo...at least where roosters are concerned. There always seems to be "good-bye" written across their foreheads. I took these pictures and an hour later, he was gone.



Five minutes before he died...then, gone