When You Were Mine, in the Cosmos, So Fine

 Oil on Panel - 4 x 4 inches

The Canada Warbler and the Muskrat
(A Fable)
by Becca Mulenburg

     Deep inside a northern forest, a Canada Warbler sang. Some distance away, a muskrat heard the bird and became annoyed. With little appetite for the bird’s song, the muskrat stormed off to have a few words with the bird. It ran past the messy willow, the budding burdock, and the chokecherry in great haste, ignoring last year’s spoils scattered here and there on the ground. As the muskrat grew closer and closer to the bird, it began to sing less and less – until it stopped. This puzzled the muskrat, but soon the animal was at the base of the tree where only moments earlier the bird sang. Without being able to locate the hushed bird, the muskrat shouted towards the treetops, “Bird, I am tired. I have come a long way, and have left my home and my family. Wherever you are, please don’t sing anymore.” Overcome with peace and a great sense of satisfaction, the muskrat turned to go home. Suddenly, the eyes of a fox peered around a red baneberry stalk. The muskrat was terrified. “Don't worry,” the fox said. “Be annoyed no more. For you did not heed the warnings of a woods gone silent.”