Loons Departing

The young ones are still here, grown

from their nests over the summer months

into newly fledged juveniles preparing to leave,

their wings newly tested and ready for the journey

following the routes and instincts of their parents,

bound for the coast; we will mourn their eerie cries

missing from our winter lives, snowbound here,

replaced by silence and the low moans

carried by the winds howling at our door.