A mother’s pastoral
A robin circles — searching
for her chick, her song sharp:
bright smell of salt, swelter before
a storm that never comes.
I know this alarm — thick with grief
I find a chick, nestled raw,
quivered such that any touch,
even slight, would kill.
Sound spirals in a wet slick — swollen
crescendo of treble
and bone, the waiting
grief of birds.
It’s the season for cuckoo eggs—
those great awkward things.
I wish I knew how to mourn
children who aren’t mine.
Dr. Jessica Bell Rizzolo is a conservation scientist who holds a joint PhD in Sociology and Environmental Science and Policy. Her academic writing has been featured in Global Ecology and Conservation, Society & Animals, Science and elsewhere. Her poetry has appeared or is upcoming in Artis Natura, Memorious, and Salamander.