I n s p i r e d V e r s e s: Dawn's Hatchling

Atop a column

on my East porch
I spotted a bird's nest
as I left for work this morning.

So I went and got a ladder from the barn - two legged earth trudging mud devil that I am -

and summited the peak

of the East porch
to take a look inside.

The single baby chick

lying within stirred

the very moment

I laid eyes on it.

I'd swear my gaze alone was the touch of a hand.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?", I asked it.

But the just hatched chick didn't make a sound. Not one blessed little peep.

It just lay within its nest among the fragments of its broken blue shell, gently trembling - while its mother unleashed a storm of chirping at me from atop a nearby tree branch.

"I don't believe there's a creature alive on earth", I said to her, "that doesn't know what it feels like to be torn between the need for self preservation and devotion to the heart's love. In any event, I've tortured you enough for one day."

So I got down from my ladder and into my car and drove off to work.

As the morning's rush hour stretched for miles behind me, the only reflection discernible in my side view mirror

was the unbroken continuum of love and devotion

- going back perhaps millions of years -

that was unfolding itself
atop a column
on my East porch.