Sunday, May 8, 2016

Mother's Day Special Feature by the Editor


Mother’s Day Haiku
Steven Wittenberg Gordon

on the nest
your eggs incubated
by your warmth

hatchlings cry for food
open mouths yawn before you
you feel their hunger

flying lessons
you must teach them to take wing
even if they fall

no longer hatchlings
mouths open wings aflutter
you feed them one last time

hardest part of all
you turn your head ignoring them
watch them fly away

Editor's Note:  Every spring I enjoy observing the juvenile forms of my backyard birds along with their adult parents.  One mark of a juv, other than slightly smaller size and immature coloration, is the rapid fluttering of wings and open mouthed pleading to be fed by the mother bird (or sometimes the father bird).  At first, the mothers cannot resist the cries of their young, but as spring turns to summer eventually the cries are ignored.  The young birds then learn to fend for themselves--the ultimate mark of having been successfully mothered.

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