Family, Food, and Chooks
©2006 AndrewHull

The winter sun streams in across the old verandah floor
And shines apon Nan’s face as she sits beside the door
She’s old and she is ill and these will be her final days
So the sun, to her, has never offered more appealing rays

I am young and full of questions, just turning twenty three
And I visit every day so I can help her with her tea
But I’m really seeking wisdom, so I come with eager ears
For the secrets of a life, you can only learn with years

She sits and eats her dinner, and the gravy stains her chin
“the peas were good”, she says, “but the sauce a little thin”
She saw my dad this morning, and ”wished he’d take more care”
“He doesn’t watch his health now your mother isn’t there”

She says “the chooks are laying” and asks after my wife
And offers not a speck of wisdom gleaned throughout her life
So I clean the dish and leave her with a kiss apon the cheek,
Taking only what she told me every other day this week

One day she is admitted, and my mother comes to care,
She returns to bravely share the duties family women share
She does not seek forgiveness and does not apologise
The unspoken understanding is revealed in both their eyes

I sit beside the bed, wondering what it means to ‘live’
While my mother offers tenderness that I could never give
Nan says, “dad seems better”, but “the chooks are off the lay”
And “I hope they haven’t got the bloody meatloaf on today”

It is awful at the end and mum rarely gets to leave
Though nurses offer comfort and merciful reprieve
The morphine is a madness, and she fades with every breath
Mum bears a heavy burden, bringing dignity to death

Then it’s over, and mums leaving, now the funeral has been done
It’s a time for many questions, but for me there’s only one
Though I feel ashamed in asking, I will ask it just the same
“Was wisdom passed between you at the dying of the flame?”

Mum draws me close and holds me, she’s smiling through her tears
I’m feeling like an infant, for she sees me through my years
“She said “your Dad was looking well”, and drifted away saying
“the evening meal was good”, and she “hoped the chooks were laying””

Now when the winter sun shines in I turn my face toward it
And rue the many years of youth I foolishly ignored it
I enjoy my children’s health and the meals my partner cooks
And I’m thinking more and more, ‘I must get myself some chooks’