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