From: Zen and the Art of Eco-Poetry

“Moose Gives Birth”

Back beside the jack pine, beneath
its boughs on cradled brush
she waits and waits, endures until
she feels the unfettered flow

freeing the masked, muddled shape:
steaming folds of wrinkled fur
tender to her nudge –
an innocence thrust

into the unfamiliar world.
Baggage removed, her burden
now fused into fresh, fragile flesh,
a few weighted blinks remind her

of life’s decisive tasks just begun:
nurture and nourish, guard and guide,
forage, trek, scent – each breath
gauging devotion, danger.

Web: http://www.outdoors.org/articles/appalachia-journal/
Credit: First appeared in Appalachia 67.2: 129.