A Serious Cluck Impediment (rev)

“Puck”, she says, “puck”; it is as
close as she can get to articulating
“cluck”. At least I take it that way –
in an amused appreciation rather than
ominous and obvious connotation
that I have a young, Sussex hen
with a serious cluck impediment.

A charmer she is, hunched at hatch
but now an elegant hen with clearly
defined black and white markings of
her handsome kin, making her winsome
way in the pen with outrageous one-liners;
‘Puck’ means a lot to me but I’ve
relented and named her ‘Hunch’.

I await the day she claims centre stage
with a pealing acclamation on her first
egg; I know it won’t have the musical
qualities of her peers but I am sure she
will surprise. Hunch is practising, put
together four “pucks” this morning in the
most complete speech I’ve ever heard
her make.
© 19 April 2007, I.D. Carswell