Chicken Poem by royness ( ' ' )

Chicken



We were not born but brought here –
packed and shipped in boxes,
thrown to the conveyer.

We hop on broken feet.
They have severed the points of our beaks. It is not
as they say, like the cutting of toenails
but the cutting of toes. The fire courses through me.

They have murdered our brothers –
stripped them of their feathers and heads –
I tread over the bodies of my breed.

The men come. They pick the dead
from the floor, to be ground up
for feed. Nothing is wasted here.
We, who are already in hell,
fear only the hook and conveyer.

The men have disgraced us. It is not in my nature
to waddle and cluck. Once we were graceful,
we soared across the country -
Now we are heavy, grown fat
on the flesh of our sisters.


I lay because I cannot do otherwise.
We conceive too many, each egg is painful to bear -
I walk to wear the blood from my feet.

In darkness, I scratch at the steel cage,
peck at the enemy, the shadows that surround me –
blunted beaks stab blindly through the black –

We listen for the stamp of their footsteps –
The doors that withdraw –
the light that spells death-death-death...

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royness ( ' ' )

royness ( ' ' )

essex, england / carmathen, wales
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