FOWL SCARE
When I was young on the chicken killing day,
The kids had a noisy job to do in a funny way,
Going round the farmyard making a terrible din
Banging lids together or clanking whatever was in
Reach, all the poor chicken ran all over the place
With a scared expression on each cute little face.

We’d run away to hide, we knew what came next,
A farm hand would wring the poor chickens necks,
It always seemed very odd to me the way it was done,
What good were the childish antics, what was won
By all the noise? Maybe they thought they would die
Of heart attack and so just all on the farmyard lie.

But no, that was not the answer, I don’t know if it’s true,
Farm hands are noted for tall tale telling to me and you,
They said the fowls feathers come out easily as can be,
It didn’t sound quite right, until a friend mentioned it to me,
‘Twas told to her one day when the chicken were hard to pluck,
“You should’ve scared em first, it works also with a duck.

Now we both are wondering if it’s some old fashioned tale
Or if it really does work, and that it never ever will fail,
If anyone knows the answer please set my mind at rest,
Any farmer may know, if it is a true thing that passed the test,
Or were two different gullible people continents away
Were made a fool of and half believed it for many a day.

M Ann Margetson March 4, 2002