With any shake of the nest or sound of flapping feathers, wobbly-headed babes, shake violently with eyes sealed shut, thrusting and thrashing toward the heavens. A soft “cheep, cheep, cheep.” The mother bulbul bird dangles a fat chartreuse caterpillar over two baby birds in a nest nestled high above in a banana tree. One hoists its head up highest, stretches its open beak widest, and mother slowly thrusts the caterpillar in and down the babe’s throat but retreats and does not let go of the meal. Finally, after five repeated thrust like this, she yields the food. The mostly featherless babes guzzle down whole grasshoppers, inch long hairy spiders, banana (http://rehabbersden.org) and I’m not sure what I saw-was that a small fish? The mother bulbul bird waits and watches, for seconds after feeding the baby, the baby bird shakes, and strains, and…poops. The poop is white and grey and black and large, about an inch in diameter. The baby bird’s anus expands to defecate the large excrement. The mother bulbul bird pulls at the poop with its beak as it leaves the baby’s anus, attains it, and swallows it down. After feeding, the mother bulbul bird climbs onto the nest and swaddles her babies with her soft, warm, feathered body. As regular feeding continues, upon mother’s arrival, the baby birds shake and strain to extend their necks and beaks a little less vigorously. They begin to trust- food will come, warmth will come, mother will come.

I remember when I was little, maybe three or four. I was sitting up in my sister Renie’s bed, resting my back against a pillow positioned vertically against the headboard. It had fat black metal bars lined up and down. My mom was sitting next to me on the bed, so close. I could feel her warmth, the warmth of her body, the way she looked at me with all of her being available, her slow and calculated movements, timed with loving precision. I trusted her. She had an orange. One by one, she pulled each orange slice from the mother host. She then took each individual segment, held the encasing membrane between her upper and lower central incisors, pulled, and peeled the skin off of the orange flesh. She held out each piece of the skinned sweet flesh and placed them gently into my mouth. It was so sweet. So easy to chew. No bad parts. Devotion. Offspring is the part of mother that she leaves behind after she’s gone from this earth.