Spring 2021, Volume 30

Poetry by Meredith Davies Hadaway

Echo

All week, an osprey chick has been complaining.
These are the toughen-up days when parents

bring no fish. A chick must be hungry to learn
to dive for food. Soon mated pairs will start the long

trip south, leaving their young to follow. The strong
quit chirping, feed themselves, then fly away.
 
But some years, one stays behind, here
by its nest, not catching on.
 
For days, the pleading echoes in the river’s
hollow sky. My neighbor pulls his boat, I turn
 
my garden under. Just one more thing we
try not to notice—not to hear it: one more cry.

 

 

 

BIO: Meredith Davies Hadaway has three published collections of poetry—including At the Narrows, winner of the 2015 Delmarva Book Prize for Creative Writing. Her work has also appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Cincinnati Review, Harpur Palate, New Ohio Review, Rhino, Salamander, Southern Poetry Review, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, among other journals. Hadaway has received fellowships from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and from the Maryland State Arts Council and five Pushcart nominations.