Spring is supposed to start with birds.

That’s what Mara says.

She sits on the low brick wall behind the cemetery fence, kicking her feet slowly in the warm grass. The air smells sweet — flowers waking up, soil turning soft, sunlight finally staying longer than it leaves.

“Where are the birds?” she asks.

Chibi pokes the ground with a stick.

“Maybe they’re smarter than us.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“It does if you’re a bird.”

The dirt sinks under the stick more than it should.

Spring rain always makes the ground softer, but this feels different.

The earth moves.

Just a little.

Like something underneath stretched.

Mara frowns.

“Did you do that?”

“Nope.”

Chibi nudges the soil again.

The hole widens slightly.

Neither of them says anything for a moment.

Across the cemetery the flowers look bright — brighter than usual. Yellow and purple pushing up through the grass around old stones that lean in crooked lines.

Spring should make the cemetery feel less sad.

Today it just feels crowded.

“Smell that?” Chibi says.

Mara nods slowly.

“Flowers.”

“Yeah.”

He wrinkles his nose.

“Too many.”

The sweetness in the air feels thick, almost sticky. Like someone tried to make spring happen faster than it should.

Something moves in the grass near the fence.

A rabbit.

But it doesn’t hop away like rabbits usually do.

It just stands there, nose twitching rapidly.

Watching.

“Rabbits run,” Mara whispers.

“Yeah,” Chibi says.

“Not today.”

The animal suddenly bolts — not toward the trees, but straight across the open grass toward the road.

Wrong direction.

Wrong instinct.

Chibi watches it disappear.

“Animals don’t mess up like that,” Mara says.

“No,” he agrees.

“They only do that when something scares them.”

She looks back at the small hole in the ground.

The soil shifts again.

Barely.

But enough.

Mara wraps her arms around herself.

“You know what this feels like?”

“What?”

“Like when someone smiles at you but they’re actually mad.”

Chibi looks around the cemetery again.

The sunlight.

The flowers.

The warm wind moving through the trees.

Everything looks exactly like spring should.

Except the birds still aren’t coming back.

Chibi taps the ground once more.

“Maybe spring forgot something.”

“What?”

“The rules.”

Mara watches the dirt shift beneath the grass.

Spring is supposed to wake things up.

But today it feels like something woke up first.

---

🜍 BIRTH — WEEK 2

Spring should feel hopeful.

But sometimes the world wakes up

before it remembers

how to begin correctly.

---

🜍 One theme. One month. One descent.
🜍 Birth. Rebirth. Return.

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