Bionic man 2.11. May 1, 2016. I’m in Southfield, Michigan to celebrate the 90th birthday of Laura’s mother, Sophia Rivkin, who demonstrated her continuing vitality and creativity by reciting a hip-hop poem she wrote recently. She was lobbying one of her nephews to accompany her on the bass at an upcoming poetry reading. After the party, Laura’s siblings Julie, Carl, and Paul drove with Paul’s sons Daniel and Jeremy and me to Belle Isle. On this lovely island in the Detroit River we walked out to view the shoreline of Windsor, Ontario and then up to the William Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse. While the rest of the group walked out to the end of Belle Isle to see Lake St. Clair open out over the horizon, I stayed at the lighthouse to rest my knee. The lighthouse is surrounded by a wrought iron fence along which a red-wing blackbird jumped in pursuit of insects or other prey too small for me to see. His syndicalist colors brightened his call as it filled the damp, cold air of this May Day and added a spring to my step on the return walk, one month after my knee replacement.