Hawaiian Chicken (not a recipe)

by Alice Folkart
Blueline
Honorable Mention, February 2008
Judged by Fleda Brown


A fine flock of feral chickens
flutter and budget beside Pali highway.

Feathers ruffle, rusted by the rain
downy breasts blackened by mildew.

Rooster-king alert, proprietary, bright-eyed,
herds wind-up chicks toward the hen-harem.

Tiny brains in weensy heads search out
tasty tidbits, wriggling worms, juicy grubs.

Scratching, slicing with skeletal yellow feet
in the rotted leaves at the very edge of tangled forest.

Raging traffic roars a foot away,
as unreal to them as distant galaxies are to us.