I met twin newborn kids a few weeks back,
who wobbled round an hour after birth
on sturdy knobby legs. Their coats were black
and white, their eyes alert upon the earth;
they walked unaided to their nourishment.
Precociously capricious they appeared,
appropriately infant ruminant –
less hair or standing balance would be weird.

A grander birthday happened recently:
my scion’s spouse delivered of an heir.
This new addition to the family
adjusts to light and noise and starts to share
the oxygen, but has so much ahead
to learn, he’ll never be a quadruped.