Impossible Task

The morning dove nested
gray in the window box
amongst dried stems
of last summer’s flowers.
She used her plump body
to protect the eggs
tucked secure and warm
beneath her ample feathers.
Did she remember
that she’d made a nest
in this same spot
last spring
only to have her eggs
stolen one by one
each time she was forced
to fly off 
and meet her own basic needs?
Had her mate abandoned her again
to safeguard and raise
their offspring on her own?
Was she expected 
to accomplish the impossible - 
remain perpetually fixed in place
to shield her eggs,
tend to their birth,
feed and shelter
her defenseless babies
until she helped them 
learn to soar?
If she left even briefly
to procure sustenance 
for herself and her chicks,
she risked some predator
sweeping in
and making her noble efforts
a midday snack.
Maybe it was time
to finally form 
that sisterhood commune
she and the other female doves
often squawked about
whenever they gathered, 
precariously balanced,
as they tried to defy odds 
historically stacked against them. 



Day 10

Spawn

In the dirt, grubs and worms
carbon and bacteria
husks of bugs
and sandy loam
clay and fungi mixing
with bits of rock
the decaying roots of last year’s show

All the blazing new
built on generous graves
of organic and inorganic antecedents

Shamelessly wild and naïve
they emerge
demanding regard and consideration
whether their formation was meticulously mapped
or haphazard of nature

Day 6

Baby Gifts

The first thing my daughter ever gave me
was a dried up piece of her umbilical cord
when I lifted her from her plastic bassinet
in the transition nursery of the hospital

We’d just met
so it seemed an awfully trusting thing to do
letting some of herself go like that at once
into my unproven hands

Roosevelt, my great-niece
fresh to this world and who I’ve yet to hold
but I see on Facebook
capturing hearts in the middle of the country
gave me back my brother
overlaid on his son
as he cradles his sleeping infant daughter
against his chest

These untried babies
so full of guileless generosity
keep offering us life

April 23, 2013

Julie Ayers

NaPoWriMo #23