Vigil: A Haibun

Written for Reena’s Xploration Challenge
where the word this week is “inchoate”.
Also for RDP Saturday and the word “eggs”.
This is where the prompts took me.

The playhouse on our back deck had been quiet all winter. Then one afternoon in mid-Spring we saw her …. a small sparrow, standing guard on the rim of her nest, eyeing us with that bright, particular wariness that says “don’t come any closer”. We peeked in only once; four eggs, pale and smooth, cradling something inchoate, some urgency not yet awakened. After that we kept our distance, moving around the deck with a new carefulness, lowering our voices without quite knowing why. We became protectors of a secret we hadn’t been invited into. Every morning I checked from the kitchen window. Every evening my husband lingered near the rail, pretending to look at the garden. Two weeks later, our patience was rewarded.

four newborn sparrows
gaping beaks chirp in protest
hungry for their food