In mid-September, cubs and cardinals
Quarrel for a beneficial tree.
Cubs like shade but hate cardinal crows. Cubs
Fill the space on the base and rub their
Backs on the trunk, and the cardinals sing louder,
Stinging the cub’s ears

Like children, their tantrums continue.
The tree timbers and silence follows.
The animals stare in a painful silence,
Like children after breaking mother’s vase.

Like children, they try to raise it up.
Like a broken vase, it cannot be replaced.
Hopeless, they face mother
Nature and grow.