Maternal Instinct

A poem about surprising discoveries.

Image via Canadian Geographic by photographer Steve Woods.

Ever since I watched The Island of The Sea Wolves documentary series, I can’t
stop thinking about the scene where two sea wolves confront each other.
The filmmakers who captured this rare encounter spent over a year tracking the daily life of these elusive creatures who live in remote areas off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. It was the first time in history that we witnessed rival wolves form a maternal bond with each other.

When the intimate study of another living species reveals something we had not considered, or even known to be possible before, it becomes a universal discovery about ourselves. Often, turning the lens of observation back on us, so that we may learn to see and understand ourselves more fully through the eyes of Mother Nature, the one who is always a silent witness to us.

Maternal Instinct
Ash Kilback

Off the coast of the Pacific Northwest,
a group of filmmakers captured a confrontation
between two rival sea wolves at the hollow mouth
of a cedar tree. Their bellies swollen and aching,
the heat of exhaustion hot on their tongues.

The rules of pack hierarchy forbid them to enter 
rival territory, the fangs of instinct are sharpest 
in the weeks leading up to birth. It’s not uncommon 
for a wolf to raid the den of a rival and kill her pups. 

But then, there are the rare moments that alter
our understanding of this world. When one wolf
invites the other inside the den and lets her stay. 
They give birth together, offer milk from their bodies
to nurse a litter that isn’t their own. 

Two wolves resisting their primal instinct to kill 
each other and raising their children together instead.
What does that say about the future we are capable
of mothering into existence?