The box
comes in the mail.
Eagerly you open it.
I roll my eyes in
skepticism
as you unpack the
cheap plastic incubator
and one quailís
egg.
The hours pass.
You check and
recheck.
I try to prepare you
for the disappointment
of its stillbirth.
A tiny beak begins
to poke through.
Hour after hour it
struggles to break free.
Finally, exhausted,
it is born.
You hold it near
your glowing face
as I snap a picture
of the proud papa.
I can not believe
you brought it life.
I am thrilled with
your success.
Within hours it
dies.
Your heart is
broken.
I know at this
moment that the hardest part
is not teaching
discipline.
It is watching you
suffer.
1996 Linda Wallin
