Picture a feather in a clear blue sky, riding the currents, almost as light
as the air is itself.
The frailest of things, it might seem, so inconsequential
and yet…
Where did it come from? Blown from the nest?
Or was there a death?
Of all of the feathers that ever have been,
which was the first to ride on the wind?
Can you guess?
First was the chicken. No, first was the egg.
The first chicken was hatched
by something with feathers – a bird
that wasn’t a chicken – not yet
But that’s not the start of it. Not even close.
The first bird, they suggest
it might have had teeth and a long bony tail
and none of the things you’d expect
but it surely had feathers. The first bird was hatched
by something with feathers that wasn’t a bird.
And eggs are much older than that.
No fish ever had feathers – now that much is true
No insect or crab, no lizard or snake or no frog
Though each one lay eggs, and sunned on a rock
They were never but naked the whole of their lives
And never had call for redress.
Then feathers were clothing, for warmth and display
Long before they were useful for flight.
So dinosaurs hunting in cold and in rain
were grateful for feathers when stalking their prey.
Tyrannosaurs had them. Who knew?
So this is the way the first feathers occurred –
when something quite naked, for sure not a bird
(perhaps not a dinosaur yet)
laid an egg that was hatched
as a dinosaur chick.
Sharp teeth, and long tail, sure enough
But oh! What a cute ball of fluff!
Jenny Brien
Image: Stilfehler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
