Watching a pair of loons this week
Swimming with their baby
Always one up,one diving
Always surfacing just feet away
Beak to tiny beak feeding
An endless loop
As they drifted down the lake
An unending display of protectiveness
Of evident affection
Of unerring devotion
To a life they formed
Nonexistent months ago,
now the center of all.
And I wondered about instinct,
A reflexive drive to exhibit
Love in every action
And the ever present tension
Between heredity and environment.
There were lessons here
About the nature of nurture
And equally, the nurture of nature.
Watching the perfect symbiosis
So much opportunity to give
abundantly, graciously,
and receive so much more
unasked, unexpected, in return.