ruminations on my father-in-law's 67th birthday

Hunter gatherers in the Kalahari
Use Ostrich eggs to drink water out of
Ostrich eggs are the largest of all eggs and
The yolk is the largest single cell
You can eat them too but
Make sure to have salt and pepper and
Maybe garlic and some other spices because
Apparently they aren’t that tasty
The egg shells can fetch at least twenty dollars
On the internet which
Is why the guy who runs the little
Antique shop and tree farm
That my daughter’s play group went to this week
Is sad that his ostrich hasn’t laid one in two years
I was surprised he had an ostrich
I knew about the carousel,
Kiddie rides, and
Miniature train but
I was surprised by the
Llama
Alpaca
Emu
Pygmy goat and
Ostrich
The Ostrich was forty years old
My daughter
Who is unusually insightful for four
Called it a Flamingo
The guy said it could live to be seventy but
That her egg laying days were over and
Thus he had glued a broken egg together because
They were twenty dollars on the internet
The Ostrich didn’t seem troubled as
She waited for a slice or two of apple
She seemed relieved
Thirty years to go and
No need to produce anything
To eat
Drink out of or
Sell and
I could have sworn that
As we drove out of sight
She stood on one leg and
Winked