Peter E. Murphy
In Due Time
Lately, I’ve been watching the twenty-four-hour
webcam where Mr. President and The First Lady,
a pair of bald eagles, take turns feeding their young.
She rips a dead rat into pieces the little one can swallow.
He offers it an alewife still quivering in his talons.
I wasted a day to see if the fledgling, its leg wedged
between sticks in the nest, died or got free.
Some praised the men who climbed the 80 foot
poplar to rescue it. Others condemned them,
said they should let nature take its course.
Mostly Mr. President and The First Lady live apart.
He flies over a swamp that needs to be drained.
She perches on a tower looking down at the world,
grooming her son to take his father’s place.
Peter E. Murphy is the author of Stubborn Child (Jane Street Press, 2005), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize; Challenges for the Delusional (Jane Street Press, 2005), a book of writing prompts; and four poetry chapbooks. His recent essays and poems appear or are forthcoming in The Common, Diode, Guernica, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The New Welsh Reader, Rattle, Word Riot, and Poems in the Aftermath (an online poetry feature forthcoming as a print anthology from Indolent Books). He is the founder of Murphy Writing of Stockton University. www.peteremurphy.com.
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