Poem: "Push and Pull"
This poem came out of the September 5, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
redsixwing, technoshaman, alexseanchai, readera, and janetmiles. It also fills the "Push and Pull" square in my 9-3-17 card for the ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ladiesbingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by nsfwords. It belongs to the Feathered Nests series.
"Push and Pull"
Ensign Zaveri and
Ensign Yom got together
not long after their ship
discovered the Fifers.
It was nice to have,
not just a human community,
but a bunch of friendly aliens
to wander among who seemed
to understand that they
had no interest in men.
There were Fifer females
called modors who only loved
other females. Some of them had
gimel lovers, and would follow them
to mate with the males (especially if
a rare and delectable faeder was
on offer) and raise a family. Some
only had eyes for other modors.
Ensign Zaveri and Ensign Yom
studied the Fifer architecture
and took meticulous notes.
The ship was turning into
its own little village too.
Lieutenant Martina and
Lieutenant Rodriga had
a pair of binary twins, both
conceived at the same time
but fathered by different men
and carried by different mothers.
Then came a terrible storm, after which
Ensign Zaveri and Ensign Yom went to
the Fifer village to document the damage.
They found an egg, still barely warm,
beneath the crushed forms of
its modor and gimel.
Ensign Yom did not hesitate
to zip it into her duty jacket,
and while Ensign Zaveri was
frantically calling for aid,
the egg hatched all over her.
By the time the Fifers arrived,
it was too late: the hatchling
had already imprinted on
her new human parents.
So the two women applied for
light duty, because they didn't
want to take maternity leave
while everyone else was
cleaning up after a disaster.
They helped keep records of what
needed to be repaired or replaced,
what was used up, and what came in.
The Fifers eagerly taught them
how to take care of a hatchling, and
learned how to handle human children.
Twee was just as happy to play with
the binary twins Abril and Adelita.
With autumn came migration,
and the push and pull of obligations
drawing people in different directions.
It was time for the Fifers to migrate.
The females went one way, the males
went another, and hatchlings followed
their parents of the same sex.
Meanwhile the ship needed
to go home and restock after
expending so many supplies
on repairs after the storm.
Ensign Zaveri and Ensign Yom
worried over what to do, because
they couldn't migrate with the Fifers
and their daughter Twee didn't have
a modor or gimel to follow anymore.
But the elders just laughed and said,
"Hatchlings follow their parents! Take her
with you. Show her your homeworld.
Then come back to us in spring, and
tell us of your winter adventures.
This is what we do."
So that was what they did.
* * *
Notes:
Imprinting is most famous in birds, but also occurs in other species including humans.
redsixwing, technoshaman, alexseanchai, readera, and janetmiles. It also fills the "Push and Pull" square in my 9-3-17 card for the ladiesbingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by nsfwords. It belongs to the Feathered Nests series."Push and Pull"
Ensign Zaveri and
Ensign Yom got together
not long after their ship
discovered the Fifers.
It was nice to have,
not just a human community,
but a bunch of friendly aliens
to wander among who seemed
to understand that they
had no interest in men.
There were Fifer females
called modors who only loved
other females. Some of them had
gimel lovers, and would follow them
to mate with the males (especially if
a rare and delectable faeder was
on offer) and raise a family. Some
only had eyes for other modors.
Ensign Zaveri and Ensign Yom
studied the Fifer architecture
and took meticulous notes.
The ship was turning into
its own little village too.
Lieutenant Martina and
Lieutenant Rodriga had
a pair of binary twins, both
conceived at the same time
but fathered by different men
and carried by different mothers.
Then came a terrible storm, after which
Ensign Zaveri and Ensign Yom went to
the Fifer village to document the damage.
They found an egg, still barely warm,
beneath the crushed forms of
its modor and gimel.
Ensign Yom did not hesitate
to zip it into her duty jacket,
and while Ensign Zaveri was
frantically calling for aid,
the egg hatched all over her.
By the time the Fifers arrived,
it was too late: the hatchling
had already imprinted on
her new human parents.
So the two women applied for
light duty, because they didn't
want to take maternity leave
while everyone else was
cleaning up after a disaster.
They helped keep records of what
needed to be repaired or replaced,
what was used up, and what came in.
The Fifers eagerly taught them
how to take care of a hatchling, and
learned how to handle human children.
Twee was just as happy to play with
the binary twins Abril and Adelita.
With autumn came migration,
and the push and pull of obligations
drawing people in different directions.
It was time for the Fifers to migrate.
The females went one way, the males
went another, and hatchlings followed
their parents of the same sex.
Meanwhile the ship needed
to go home and restock after
expending so many supplies
on repairs after the storm.
Ensign Zaveri and Ensign Yom
worried over what to do, because
they couldn't migrate with the Fifers
and their daughter Twee didn't have
a modor or gimel to follow anymore.
But the elders just laughed and said,
"Hatchlings follow their parents! Take her
with you. Show her your homeworld.
Then come back to us in spring, and
tell us of your winter adventures.
This is what we do."
So that was what they did.
* * *
Notes:
Imprinting is most famous in birds, but also occurs in other species including humans.