While I was watching Ospreys,

You hatched out of the eggshells

And saw a world far larger,

A world measured not by your size,

But stretching over ten billion light-years.

Welcome, April.

Welcome, May.

Welcome, June.

Welcome, Julia.

I have wanted to get a good look at you.

But whenever I inch closer to the cage,

Your dad and mom would jump back

And block the door to the attached wooden house.

Even their favorite Shanghai green we tossed in

Would not dull their sense of vigilance.

That kind of loving care

Puts me to fresh shame,

Spurs me to emulate, and

Compels me to admire.

What a lucky bunch you are!

You would have been born somewhere else,

If not for John and Katie and their friend.

They could not stand the mess and noise

That your parents were making.

We accepted them with a tapering joy.

But your coming changed all that.

I am all the more anxious

To see your wearing fledgling feathers,

To hear your tuning love songs, and

To play wild catch in my house with you all.

(Composed on Jan. 9, 2002)