So...
that a quail dies
just a few days after hatching
from its shell
in the warmth chamber,
feels so sad, so needless,
so empty

One newborn quail less
is a new world
thrown wide open to sorrow
that cannot be escaped,
before which the armies lay down their arms
in the awareness of life's impermanence

I remember how Anna and I
went to fetch the eggs
from a neighbor
in the village;
how Anna set up the incubator,
its light pulsing
like a spacecraft across the sky
or a lighthouse on a cliff in life

And today I receive a message by email
from home,
that a little one has died