Brown Headed Cowbird
A female brown-headed cowbird
will lay her eggs in another nest,
hoping they will be taken care of.
One too many screaming,
screeching heads brings hunger first.
Young, nestling beaks, opening wide
with an inner pain that exists from her love.
The mother bluebird hunts twice as much,
twice as hard.
She is always tired when she comes home to her babies,
even though one is different from the others. But even with
its black and brown feathers,
she sees the cowbird nestling as her own.
She will feed the baby, knowing what it means for her two baby blues,
who will never fledge.
But who can she blame but herself? Does her third child not exist
from her fire and the heat of her breastbone?
Only the exhaustion in her will scream,
I wish I didn’t love you.
Hazel J. Hall (she/they) is an emerging writer and poet who enjoys making art in all of its forms to try and discover more about the world. You can find her blog at hazeljhall.com.