Bringing Chickens - Song Page
©
from the album Out on the Tallgrass Prairie
Mother and daughter take chickens to the rest home, where elderly ladies pass them around, fondly remembering early years with their own farm flocks.
ABOVE ILLUSTRATION: Original watercolor by artist Terra Coons of White City, Kansas - illustrating this song.
Click below to LISTEN FOR FREE (to purchase go to STORE)
Another wonderful illustration by Terra Coons: of a soft-hearted old cowhand tenderly holding two baby chicks.
LYRICS
We’re taking chickens to the rest home for the ladies there to see.
We’ve loaded up the truck – my little daughter helping me.
The ladies were in wheelchairs parked around the commons room.
We could see the shades of sky In their hair of silver blue.
As we carried in our cages of cooing hens and chicks,
The women soon awakened and watched with eyes transfixed.
The nurse aids wheeled them closer ‘til they formed a little pen.
Then we opened up one wire door and lifted out a hen.
As they held and shared the chickens, soon those grey walls opened up.
They were dreaming under blue sky and tending to their flock.
Their birds were in the spring grass out foraging for seeds,
Pecking up an insect in the prairie morning breeze.
My daughter shared a baby chick; they held it to their cheeks,
Stroking both the downy wings - one even kissed its beak.
They cradled rich brown eggs in our basket lined with hay:
That tawny oval source of life they’d gathered up each day.
The stories soon began to flow of days back on the farm
When chickens were the enterprise they managed on their own.
These lovely, feathered creatures truly kept their families fed:
A source of pride and beauty in the lives these women led.
When we passed around the last one - a rainbow-colored hen,
She cooed beneath the strokes of each gentle, blue-veined hand.
Then we had to take the chickens back; their chairs again had wheels.
But, as we left they still were tending their chickens in the field.