Poetry Sunday: The Killdeer Chick by Richard Owen

I came across this poem a few days ago and it reminded me of several encounters I've had with Killdeer over the years. I am very familiar with their desperate act of dragging the seemingly broken wing to lure me to follow. And I follow, pretending I never saw their two precious chicks hiding there in the grass.

The Kildeer Chick 

by Richard Owen

Each time we drive our grassy road, the kildeer tries 

To lead us from her nearby nest. She drags her wing 

And calls. She's easy prey, we could not resist 

If we were fox or badger. As it is, 

We are a monstrous iron thing, a truck 

That goes its way unthinking, unaware.

I saw a movement and I stopped, got out. Beside the wheel 

A tiny bit of fluff, so close it should be crushed.

I picked it up, and it was live in my hands, 

I put it down. It ran towards mother's desperate cries.

A tiny bit of grace it was. For once,

The beauty of the world 

Was spared from us.

Comments

  1. David M. Gascoigne,November 12, 2023 at 6:20 AM

    I too have played their game many times. Pretty dedicated protective parenting, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlanaNovember 12, 2023 at 9:33 AM

    I remember years ago, when I lived in Arkansas; we were crossing a grassy vacant lot as a shortcut and saw this act. Not sure it was a killdeer but it sure was memorable. Loved this poem.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lark November 12, 2023 at 11:06 AM

    Love those last two lines!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Deb Nance at ReaderbuzzNovember 14, 2023 at 5:57 AM

    You are the perfect person, Dorothy, to share nature poems with us. I hope you will find more and continue to share them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. thecuecardNovember 15, 2023 at 2:00 PM

    I have not seen the bird's deceptive act but it seems like a great ploy. Thanks for the poem.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no
Read more

Overboard by Sara Paretsky: A review

Image
  This is the twenty-first novel in the V.I. Warshawski series that Sara Paretsky first began publishing in 1982 with Indemnity Only . I've read them all. I've been a Warshawski fan since the beginning.  So for forty years, Paretsky has been writing these books and I've been reading them. And one thing that I have enjoyed about them is that V.I. has aged through them, if not exactly forty years then at least enough to simulate reality. In this latest book, V.I. may be feeling the weight of those years a bit but her passion for justice is undiminished.  As often in her cases, a teenager is involved. V.I., the hardboiled detective, has a certifiable soft spot for teenagers. This time it is a teenage girl who V.I.'s dog Mitch finds when they are on a walk around Lake Michigan. The girl is injured and unconscious and has only a faint pulse when V.I. checks her. She calls an ambulance and the girl is taken to the hospital after uttering only one word which seems to make no s
Read more

Open Season (Joe Pickett #1) by C.J. Box - A review

I was introduced to the writing of C.J. Box through my local library's Mystery Book Club.  Open Season , the first in Box's Joe Pickett series, was the club's selection for reading in June. Although I didn't get a chance to read it in time for the meeting, the discussion of it made me curious and I put it on my to-be-read list. I'm glad I finally got around to it this week. Box has created an enormously appealing character in Joe Pickett. A Wyoming game warden, Joe is a devoted family man with two young daughters and a pregnant wife when we first meet him. He and his family are able to barely scrape by financially on the meager salary of a state employee  (Been there, done that!) , but Joe is a happy man, because he's living his dream. Being a game warden was what he always wanted to be. Not only Joe but his whole family are lovingly drawn by Box. We get to know them well and to like them and want them not just to endure but to triumph. Seven-year-old Sherid
Read more