Learning

Morning sunlight after days of overcast Do something good for myself a hot breakfast And then get outside to fill with dirt the holes in the lawn that the chickens have made to dust and preen themselves Grandpa says it doesn’t do any good to chase them out of the yard because it never keeps them out But I insist on chasing them out and then on chasing them out again You can’t teach a chicken anything except by killing it he says but I say there’s enough to do first for oneself We didn’t teach them how to lay their eggs and we didn’t teach the clouds to go away

15 August 1980