Seal Pups

Seal Pups

The seal pups at Point Lobos are not a week old. 
They stay close, bothering their mothers
Who are still smarting from labor.
No childcare here.
What they sensed first as a flicker within them 
Turned out to be life itself inside them.
Outside them now. 
A published poem. 
But braver than any poet, these.
Oh to be so brave, to send such tenderness
Into the shark-toothed sea,
Delectable, attackable snacks
And no arms to hold them back.
All she can do is binge 
Episodes of waves
On a wale of sand white as lysol
While the deadbeat dads, long ago gone 
Into the blue, think nothing 
Of their offspring
Exactly as they’re supposed to.
Sleeping, she teaches sleeping.
Swimming, she teaches swimming.
This is the pure school we dropped out of.
I’ve snuck back today to learn a lesson
I learned once but forgot,
Crouching as if listening under a window.
Even here where the earth ends,
The earth wants to go on.