Like so many love letters, this one must start with an apology. This second issue of Briar Press Quarterly was scheduled to be released on the 15th of March (instead, you will be reading this on the 15th of April). Since Tax-Filing Day in the U.S. has been pushed back a month, we suppose it’s not out of character in this Pandemic Year No. 2 for our Issue No. 2 to be delayed in a similar fashion. Thus, we now bring you “Mating Season.”
In truth, dear readers, it was our distraction with Spring itself that has caused our delay. The colors, sights, smells, warmth and rekindling of Nature—as well as a smidgen of Hope, finally—has caused us, like so many mammals, to be quite dizzy with diversion.
A condition known as photoperiodism—a plant or animal’s response to the relative lengths of day and night—is in part to blame for what we humans think of as “Mating Season.” In fact, we may be the only animals on the planet who think of it at all, the rest of Earth’s species diving into this annual heady intoxication with mere instinct and perfectly-evolved timing. As for when we choose our mates, our evolution has insured it doesn’t much matter when we mate or who we mate with; or whether or not we reproduce from our unions at all.
