Seals lumber ashore now
birth places bitterly contested in biting winds
matings too - bloodied blubber gives vent
milky pups fatten on the eternal teat
cries for the stillborn, the new born
gulls pick quarrels and placenta
all these breaths hang misty
at November's numbing nativity
Mish’s Quadrille #21 prompts us to Take a Breath