The Mallard Hen's Virgil Poem by Sidi Mahtrow

How she came to be
Nesting along the highway, busy?
But there in the planting
Out of usual sighting
A clutch of eggs
Amongst the twigs
Maybe three or four
Certainly not many more.
In a feathery nest
Where warmth the eggs would bless
Until the magic day would appear
And cracks in shells became at once clear.
So soon, the calcium cage
Shattered likened by a wedge
Did appear a duckling
A wet and furry something
That stood and looked around
At the new world it had found.
Soon joined by another
And then another
Till only one remained
In its hard shell domain.
But the hen seemed to know
And turned the egg for a masterly blow.
Pecking until she did win
Freedom for the duckling within.
And then the four emerged from the nest
And following mother in their quest
For the pond that lay
Just a short distance away.

There in a line they swam
Keeping perfect time,
Celebrating the new world
That was now theirs to explore.

Happy is the mother who sees her brood escape from the limits of the nest and follow the sun.

*****
(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.)

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