Book Excerpt:

“Terns chase summer. They travel so far that they get two a year.” Even on a sunny day I cannot imagine that much light and warmth. Double summer? Sign me up. 

“They sleep while they fly. They can sleep half of their brain at a time.” 

Of all the bird facts my mother has told me this makes the most sense. This one I can feel. It feels just like growing up in Alaska, in this abandoned fur farm, our home made out of a cage, but reading about the moon and other strange places. 

“They live a long time,” she sighs as she licks the end of her brush to make a finer line, the cobalt paint leaving a thin stripe on her bottom lip. “For a bird.” 

I sit in my sunbeam and watch her. Blonde curls are everywhere. Cheekbones. Blue eyes like her lip. She will live forever.

For a bird.

Excerpt from “The Mink Pen” forthcoming memoir by Elke Govertsen