Embark Poem by Tara Schley

A chickadee alighted beside my window:
Collecting twigs for her nest.
Made warm with;
Down picked from her tail,
Scavenged from the nonh side ofan od oak tree.
She delicately lay five tiny white And red-brown speckled eggs.
She set to brooding.
Her partner went out to find her food.
To never return.
Maybe a cat or a hawk got to him?
She'll never know.
She carefully covered her hatched chicks:
Three of them.
Her days were spent finding her chicks And herself food.
Her nights were spent snuggling with her chicks.
Keeping them safe and warm.
As they grew they needed more food.
The longer she spent away from the nest.
The more she worried if they would be There on return.
They grew and grew,
Until the day it was time for them to Learn to fly.
She tentatively pushed them
One by one.
From the nest.
'You can fly now', she encouraged them.
- She hoped the world treated them kindly.

Tara Schley.