The wind begins to mitigate the heat,
and turkey children settle in for bedtime stories,
not that they listen – the air is full
of their contented trills
and flaps of everybody’s last adjustments

In other trees, there is much clapping clattering
as other turkeys seek their branch of comfort.
It takes the time it takes – not short or long –
then falls, like dusk, into the evening’s quiet.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 20, 2020