Robin Requiem

I was home today in time to enjoy the cool but sunny weather in the backyard.

Being my first sunny day home this year I was so focused on getting a grip on the mud luvin weeds that I was startled to see a dead robin at my feet.

It was perfect, I thought at first maybe just stunned but the knarled feet told me it had been there a bit.
I would have been thrilled just to see a robin this early in the year so my heart sank to see his beautiful life ended on such a promise day.

I never know what to do with dead things like that....I hate to leave them out to the elements, cats, etc...so you can imagine my consternation to step a few feet to one side and see yet another identical dead robin not more than a foot from where the first had fallen. Their death is a mystery but may have to do with the clear glass windbreak that we built to cut the wind on the little brick patio where I found them.

These were the only birds I saw today, dead birds, beautiful birds...I finally put them in a paper sack and entrusted them to Rod who handles these things for me. I don't want to bury anything else this year!

Looking at these two lifeless creatures, lovely and vibrant just hours ago made death seem so unavoidable and in my face, maybe because of my own losses this year?
I am working through the thought of both of my parents' bodies being under the ground... even though I have the most real assurance that their "person" is with God and that I will see them again.
Maybe to most the picture above is just a couple of dead birds?
Maybe you had to be there, touch the exquisite, velvet, feather tapestry of their red underbody. What comes to your mind?