Chicken Villanelle

On fine yellow legs and their feathers so sleek

The chickens are plucking up succulent weeds

With a wry knowing smile that graces each beak.

Establishing a pecking order, the weak

Are bitten and scratched until one of them bleeds,

On fine yellow legs and their feathers so sleek.

Hiding in the Rhodies, now taking a peek

Behind bushes, fences, and rocks, the flock feeds,

With a wry knowing smile that graces each beak.

The neighborhood feline when trying to sneak,

Alerts the guard hen who then rapidly speeds

On fine yellow legs and her feathers so sleek.

The cat earns a well deserved peck on the cheek,

Then he tears through the garden scattering seeds,

And a wry knowing smile then graces each beak.

If it’s true that the earth shall fall to the meek,

And if we are judged not by prayers but by deeds,

And by fine yellow legs and feathers so sleek,

A wry knowing smile will then soon grace each beak.

Andrine de la Rocha

posted 9/7/2011