Family

[Delta40]

Chicks cannot be housed in the pen
I have taken a lifetime to build.
We cannot stay together,
forever.

Chicks grow.
Like balls of fluff
they scatter across the boundaries.

Old strings, and naive hope
make half-hearted nests
in their minds
while under the wing
that protects them and blocks them.

Chicks are stubborn,
determined.
They poke their heads
through any hole of opportunity.

I desperately round them up
as if my nearness will suffice.
Chicks are destined to escape
the strong wing of cluckiness.

As I count the eggs
I have carried in one basket,
they slip under the wire fence
away from my mother-hen love

[PrinceMyshkin]

I thought this was a reasoned, objective description of parenting - and then that last line rather blew me away. Three clucks to you!

[Delta40]

cluck, cluck!

[Delta40]

edited and bumped.

[Jerrybaldy]

Oh those chicks. It is just as well they can't fly or they would be off sooner.

You with your eggs and your maternal poetry. Once they slip under the wire fence, they take you with them. They could barely forget the teachings of Delta40.

I particularly liked


I desperately round them up
as if my nearness will suffice.

[Delta40]

lol. I checked the dictionary of dreams on this one. chickens running loose is definitely about anxiety and worry for family!