‘Fledgling’
— Hannah Cohen
I’d never seen a man grieve like that
for an animal
A name as fragile and sacred as life itself, ‘Fledgling’ may sound delicate, but even the poem tells you to “[l]ook, but don’t touch” and rather just observe a parent and their child among the vibrancies of fruits, plants, and animals. Balancing between the mundane and the delicate moments of domesticity, the poem has its own turn at the admission of “[w]hen the cat / your ex-wife gave you died, I was grateful.” There’s an allowance of vulnerability that makes this poem so different from just a mere reflection of experience. From the names of baby birds to thinking about the world outside a plant pot, we understand all the degrees of intimacy and why “we risk it” all in our life.