twin fawns, white spotted

twin fawns, white spotted,

chase each other round their doe,

stop to nurse, off again

The mother doe stands between two shagbark hickory trees in our side yard, turning her head this way and that. Flashing by, two white spotted fawns chase each other round and round like a pair of beaded Inuit yo-yos pivoting around their solid tether.

They stop at last and one bends her head under her mother's flank to nurse. The doe looks up and spots me, standing behind the sun porch window. Ever cautious, she trots away and the fawns bound off behind her.

between the train tracks

between the train tracks

and hot springs a young mother

nurses her baby

Beyond bearing a baby, the most intimate act of motherhood is nursing. This young mother is sitting outside her little shop on the steep street that leads from the train tracks to the hot springs in Aguas Calientes, quietly feeding her infant, completely at ease while all sorts of people pass by.