Courting the Invisible

The loveliest thing I ever heard I never saw. I was at the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga when I passed a music box tree in a street whose name I have since forgotten. The tree itself was rather small and unremarkable, but given the noise, there must have been an avian legion concealed within its tidy foliage and tight-woven branches! The leaves all but chimed with their lyrical racket. Starling or sparrow, I have no idea, and I don't really care. The sound stays with me like their silhouette. Too often, I think it is easy to rely on the sense of sight to describe a scene, but then I remember the music box tree and try to do better.