The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

What is the Lesson?~ By Colleen Wells

9/17/2015

0 Comments

 
My newborn niece, Marissa, died yesterday. Word came while protesting the planned deer kill at a nature preserve called Lake Griffy where I live in Bloomington, Indiana. As I think about my sister’s loss, I’ve got the bond between mother and child on the brain.

I spoke to Marge Davis, a 94-year-old wildlife rehabilitator in Sonoma, California, I had met while researching deer for a feature story I wrote about this widely-debated issue of the deer kill in our town. I wanted to know more about the bond between does and fawns, as many of those bonds will be broken when the sharpshooters enter Griffy. Marge explained that fawns are with their mothers for nearly two years. During this time their mothers teach them how to find nutritious food and water sources and how to avoid predators. 


These are some of the basic things human mothers teach their children.
When a doe dies, her fawns will stay by her body circling around as long as she is there. Likewise, Marge has seen does follow her truck for 100s of yards when she carries off an injured fawn. 
While juvenile fawns in the Griffy area can survive the loss of their mothers, they will be at greater risk, as they won’t even yet be yearlings. We all have a finite amount of time to teach our children, and I ask, what is the lesson in this?


Author Bio:
Colleen Wells writes from Bloomington, Indiana, where she lives with her husband and three children and their menagerie of pets. On her bucket list is to get a Celtic tattoo, visit Ireland, and earn a degree in environmental education. Her work has appeared in various publications including Adoptive Families Magazine, ORION, and The Potomac Review. Her first book, a memoir, was published by Wordpool Press in April 2015. It is titled, Dinner With Doppelgangers, a True Story of Madness and Recovery, and is about her experiences with bipolar disorder.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    January 2023
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: editors@thevoicesproject.org