“Spring: trees flying up to their birds”

“My birthday began with the water -Birds and the birds of the winged trees flying my name.”

“There was a small stand of trees nearby, and from it you could hear the mechanical cry of a bird that sounded as if it were winding a spring. We called it the wind-up bird. Kumiko gave it the name. We didn't know what it was really called or what it looked like, but that didn't bother the wind-up bird. Every day it would come to the stand of trees in our neighborhood and wind the spring of our quiet little world.”

“and the sad notes floated out to thepatio and hung in the trees like birds too tired to fly”

“The leaves were still on the trees, but were becoming dry, perched like birds ready to fly off.”

“If I'd let you go and I'd gotten caught, my head would currently be decorating a tree somewhere, done up like an extremely morbid bird feeder...Here we go. And here's the moment where the rules fly out the window for all of us.”