Kidding

After the cold snap, a thaw
Two goats, heavy with child, build nests and nuzzle noses to palms
in their blankets of straw.
Online calculators predict a birth tomorrow,
and another one Friday.
We watch and we hope --
that it will be smooth,
that the kidding -- the birthing -- will be seamless,
that the new kids -- the babies -- will be cute.

Hens flap up to the highest of haystacks and lay eggs in new nests up there.
Others find comfort near the goats,
while one goes broody in the hen house.
Fifty two -- or so -- chicks cluck crazily under two heat lamps.
Spring has arrived.
For kids, we wait.