Babysitting (Poetry)

The Male Emperor Penguin’s Vigil

Caught full in the blizzard broad shoulders encrust
with a mantle of ice as they huddle and dream
of the bright open sea and the dawning sun’s burst
through the long wall of night — that first dazzling gleam

that releases enchantment — unfreezes each cell
so sensation flows back in a slow tepid flood
as they shuffle and shrug off each crystalline shell
catch the change in the air — feel the swell in the blood.

In the distance black specks — random jottings — appear
on the whiteness of paper — an icy bare plain
growing busy with hurry — drawn closer it’s clear
that their fish-fattened mates are returning again.

Each reunion’s marked with a gift and a cry
those raucous exchanges toned gruff with relief
in a chorus dispersed to the towering sky
and echoing wide through the blankness beneath.

Then it’s over — the ordeal that nature demands
and their duty is done — they’ve survived and are free
while pure instinct denies useless worry or qualms
they preen glad in the sun — then set off for the sea.