How she came to be <br />Nesting along the highway, busy? <br />But there in the planting <br />Out of usual sighting <br />A clutch of eggs <br />Amongst the twigs <br />Maybe three or four <br />Certainly not many more. <br />In a feathery nest <br />Where warmth the eggs would bless <br />Until the magic day would appear <br />And cracks in shells became at once clear. <br />So soon, the calcium cage <br />Shattered likened by a wedge <br />Did appear a duckling <br />A wet and furry something <br />That stood and looked around <br />At the new world it had found. <br />Soon joined by another <br />And then another <br />Till only one remained <br />In its hard shell domain. <br />But the hen seemed to know <br />And turned the egg for a masterly blow. <br />Pecking until she did win <br />Freedom for the duckling within. <br />And then the four emerged from the nest <br />And following mother in their quest <br />For the pond that lay <br />Just a short distance away. <br /> <br />There in a line they swam <br />Keeping perfect time, <br />Celebrating the new world <br />That was now theirs to explore. <br /> <br />Happy is the mother who sees her brood escape from the limits of the nest and follow the sun. <br /> <br />***** <br />(The Smith Insurance Agency on Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota Florida has a planting not more than fifty feet from the busy highway where a mother duck tirelessly, year after year has nested her eggs and led her ducklings safely away to the pond that is behind the row of office buildings.) <br /> <br />s<br /><br />Sidi J. Mahtrow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-mallard-hen-s-virgil/
