Born a Chicken

Born a Chicken (©A. Calhoun, 2013)

For you were born a chicken, and bound for misery
You were sent from a pent-up henhouse to a sweltering rotisserie
With your legs hog-tied and headless, your guts stuffed up your crotch
Rotating naked for all to see, should anyone care to watch

And when you were spun into golden brown, with crispy neck and socks
They pulled you out of the roaster, and piled you into a box
With a price stuck on the plastic, like a cupcake or a book
An easy chicken dinner, for folks to cheap to cook

And when the Johnsons took you home they pulled you all apart
They ate your legs, they ate your breast, they sucked your marrow out
The father left the wishbone, the sister left the skin
Mom put your bones out in a trashbag, in the box that you came in

For you were born a chicken