Notes From a Nest

Notes From a Nest

On this river’s edge
too quiet for my thoughts
to pick up and carry
the echo downstream
are the faint high chirps
of a nesting chick, an osprey
calling among the pines.
One small bird of many, the water’s
sound reaching its nest
arousing primal hunger
like the moon urging the tide.
The same urge again and again
to one bird alone in a tree
or to many such birds,
each solitary chirp calling
a mother, in this forest
which is theirs and theirs alone.