Only one at a time. She had me first. In the beginning, there was only mothers milk until I heard something innate and primal awakening me to my relationship with trees. I could hear their call from a deep place called instinct. Like a man eating something holy to him without his molars, I take their fruits to my nest and eat only what fills me. Spit, seeds, and pulp falls to the ground and becomes a new tree. It’s mutual they feed me I feed her. Being fruitful, literally, helping them to multiply. 
There is a multitude at my disposal when twilight comes. Suddenly, napping and grooming turns to hunting and stalking prey. I catch the tail end of the sunset the birds go in we go out. What will end up in my claws could it be moths you can’t get rid of, mosquitoes you clamor to run from, could it be fruits whose seeds want out? It all depends on whom you’re watching. I’ve known cousins who feed on blood, small mammals, and fish from lakes, rivers, and streams. Biting as they do large palm leaves creating tents with their teeth.
My specialty is not my sight it’s in my hearing, it’s in my olfactory senses. I send a sound so profound it bounces off the belly of my prey so I come grabbing them in mid-air wrapping them in a pocket of my wing taking them back to my place.
Glad to be here. My mother waited for the appropriate time. When the insects would be plentiful when the rain would not be a hindrance to my search for food. Legend tells my father implanted her long before she decided to give birth to me. Gave me time to know how to harvest what comes after the winter and rainy seasons so that I may relax in hibernation and remember what to look for when spring comes a calling.
Did you know Lion is my distant cousin? Some of us if you stand close enough look like miniature foxes wrapped in sheaths of wings.
Now threats such as wind turbines disturb our kind on distant lands. Millions have died already from white fungus a disease that disturbs hibernating bats and makes them exhausted to death in America. You need us! Plants need us! Sure enough, we are the second largest group of mammals on the planet. But we earn our keep. We do our best. 70% of our food is insects you call pests. You can’t imagine the world that exists without us. They call me a bat.
Sabibi Davidson 