Today, for the first time,
I saw the young one
without his mother
and he saw me
without my son.

He chewed the grass
nearly free of snow
a teaspoon worth
a thimbleful.

His butterfly pillow eyes
kept returning to mine
in the same way
my son’s often do.

And I thought,
how marvelous it is
to be a mother,
to be a lighthouse
to any child creature.