June is back, and - thanks to the wonders of science - it once again is the month of celebrations large and small: A month of weddings, graduations, backyard Father’s Day barbecues; a month of empty places at otherwise celebratory tables.

The loss of those we hold dear is, of course, a part of life impossible to avoid no matter how fervently we wish it were not so. And, equally true, is the fact that each year - even those mercifully free of pandemics - carries with it this cruel potential. Indeed, it is precisely because of this truth that the necessary deprivation of grandparents from their grandchildren and adult children from their aging parents has been one of the most fraught aspects of this COVID year. One less year when there are too few remaining has been a costly price.

And so, in honor of the long-awaited, fully-vaccinated return of smiles and hugs and reunions with elder loved ones, a poignant poem by our founding Poem of the Month editor, Susan Edwards Richmond:

How to Know the Terns

By Susan Edwards Richmond

Fat, fearless on retirement beach,

terns congregate in the pink light,

thirty, forty, in a spot,

posing for Sibley’s brush

We walk right up to them and kneel,

splay pages of the field guide

across our laps, check

marks without binoculars.

My father points to a Royal’s

orange bill, a Caspian’s blood red,

both crest feathers sticking up

in the breeze, Groucho’s wild hair.

My mother says, occasionally

they see a Sandwich, white-tipped bill

foraging the sea, and, rarely,

a Least, exactly that.

The Common, they tell me, is not

so much here, the Forster’s,

rarer still, both tails deeply

forked, bills dipped in black.

Having finally joined the migration,

six weeks over wintering each year

while the upstate New York blizzards

blow hardest, my parents gather

birds for the list, children,

grandchildren. As we watch,

a young boy runs at the flock,

scattering lengthening shadows.

Susan Edwards Richmond is the author of five books of poetry for adults and the Parent’s Choice Silver Award-winning picture book, Bird Count (Peachtree). A passionate birder and naturalist, Susan teaches preschool on a farm and wildlife sanctuary in eastern Massachusetts. She earned her B.A. from Williams College and her M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, Davis. She is happiest exploring natural habitats with her husband and two daughters and learns the native birds wherever she travels. Her upcoming picture books include Bioblitz (Peachtree), to be published in Summer 2022, and Night Owl Night (Charlesbridge), scheduled for Spring 2023. “How to Know the Terns” was originally published in her 2006 chapbook, Birding in Winter (Finishing Line Press).