A sweep of wings draws whispers of air beneath the porcelain feathers, drawing cool air to dimpled skin. They gently sigh as they settle down, unruffled and refreshed after an evening of still. Below the undercarriage and beside the webbed feet pokes a head, bright and naive peeking their introduction to the sun. With a soft lumber, they emerge from their mothers warmth and stumble chest first over a wayward stick and upwards again. A swarm of bumbling chicks laying waste to a quiet morning like lion cubs at play. The mother follows along, gentle nudges righting unreliable footwork, steering the scrambled pitter patters toward water....
My first thought was of the support I've received from my own Mother-In-Law which very much felt like being taken under their wing the way a bird cradles their young. That was the idea I stuck with and it ended up being about a mother but a Mother-In-Law is a mother first so still happy with the result!
It was really fun to try and describe how fresh chicks would walk. I really tried to focus on verbs that emphasised this like lumber, stumble, wayward, bumbling etc. Recently I've thought about this in songwriting and how using verbs like this across a song help set the scene just as much as the metaphor does. I'll likely dive into that in the next couple of songs I write to see how far it can be pushed!