Mourning Doves
Morning and evening
they coo for each other and us
from the white pine.
Their speech is kind
as a cool day
when the wind quietly touches.
The young, nearly adult, still drink
from each parent’s open throat.
Is it the milk that gives
them their mild lives and cries?
They do not fear the owl
or hawk. They do not
hear our sadness in their talk.
*
Audrey Hackett lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Winner of a 2022 Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council, she holds an MFA in poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Recent poems have appeared in Twelve Mile Review, Green Ink and ONE ART.
