Peck

I am seven
Tasked with
Collecting eggs
From a henhouse
Which entails staring
Down the hen while one
Hand searches for any egg
In the nest which means the hen
Must be gotten off the nest first
And all this without getting too
Badly pecked but as a result
I get pecked on my hand
Face fingers arms and
Find no eggs to put
In the basket not
For breakfast
But for our
Easter
Egg painting
Once boiled but
Wonderful to dye
And decorate a raw
Egg as a prank on my
Sisters which is detected
Before the joke ever happens
And I get surprised by Texas
Mexican cascarones egg
Shells dry filled with bits
Of confetti my sisters
Smash on my head
With shrieks of
Laughter so
The hen
Pecks
Are less Irksome.
I remember Colonel Foghorn’s
Phrase, “I say son. I keep pitchen ‘em and you keep missen ‘em.”
When I hear someone call
A guy chicken I think
Of the hen’s peck,
Later my sister
Crocheted
A motto:
The rooster
Crows but the
Hen lays the egg.
And, if you drop the
Bucket of fresh eggs
You can always try
To sell them by
The peck.