a few notes on baby shit

1.  
Baby chicks require cleaning several times a day  
or they will shit their poopers sealed shut.  
 
That is if you intend to raise them in a box  
until they are big enough for a coop  
which you will have to build  
if you intend on keeping them.  
 
Which we do, apparently, as the ol' lady brought thirteen  
of 'em home last week. Rhode Island Reds.  
 
We will be back up to check on them in an hour or so  
but first we have to drop off a baby squirrel  
that we rescued on the way to my mothers  
whom we picked up on the way  
to see my brothers' baby, Lucas Budrick  
who was born yesterday.  
 
2.  
Baby squirrels are as pink as any fresh mammal  
and are hard to watch die, struggling after a storm  
on a sidewalk, inching along to nothing.  
 
The third best thing to give a struggling squirrel  
is 4 quarts of water, mixed with a dash of salt  
I think some sugar, and the ol' lady knows the rest.  
 
A recovering squirrel sits in a dresser drawer  
at my mothers, sleeping better than any mammal  
ever has.  
 
3.  
Lucas Budrick is sitting in a hospital room  
just turning one day old. He looks ridiculously  
like my brother, who looks a lot like me.  
A more gorgeous child has not been born.  
 
Don't know much about Lucas yet  
but I do know that his initials  
will fit nicely into the plans  
of an amateur veterinarian  
who wastes lot of paper.