Alice and Joanie B. by Laurenjoan: Alice and Joanie B. Find Unlikely Friends

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Alice and Joanie B. Find Unlikely Friends

Joanie B. and Alice - library hens and friends. Where one goes, there goes the other. But last summer when Laurenjoan first brought Alice home from the county fair, Joanie B. did not want to be friends. Instead she let out a very loud squawk...

Joanie B: Squaaaaawwwk! (how dare you) squaaaawwwk! (come into) squaaawwwwkkk! (my yard) !!!! The very idea -- squaawwk!

Joanie B. went on this way all afternoon - and for a week after. Poor Alice! One day she was with her 16 sister pullets at the fair; the next she was stuck with one mad hen.
Eventually the squawking and determined pecking gave way to calm. Alice knew Joanie B. was the boss, and then, finally, they could be friends.

James Taylor expresses it best:

You just call out my name,
and you know whereever I am
I'll come running to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer, or fall,
all you have to do is call and I'll be there,
yeah, yeah,
you've got a friend.

Sometimes you never know who will be your friend. If you're a one-legged chicken, it might be a dog....

If you're a hamster, it just might be a snake....

Unlikely friendships can form anywhere, anytime....

               True friendship unfeigned
Doth rest unrestrained,
         No terror can tame it:
Not gaining, nor losing,
Nor gallant gay glosing,
     Can ever reclaim it.
In pain, and in pleasure,
The most truest treasure
        That may be desired,
Is loyal love deemed,
Of wisdom esteemed
     And chiefly required.

Henry Cheke (1548–86)
Source: The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry - SCCLD elibrary