Parental Advisory

Not just a russet of fox cub, but 
a burnished morning, barely weaned from rain,  

and a fawn, barely the size of a descending eagle, wings open,
barely able to walk alongside its exhausted mother,

stumbling over its legs, reaching for a last silent suckle,  
like a vulnerable truth we’ve tucked up inside ourselves,  

and because of that, our own children missed out 
on something that needed telling.

Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt
V3, July 17, 2026