Poultry Verse

Since they have incited me with a “no-god,”

And provoked me with their empty idols

I will incite them with a “no-people”;

With a foolish nation I will provoke them.

— Deuteronomy 32:21

 

Man’s molded image is God’s gold,

glory. Indelible likeness; man’s mark.

Though wide wings outstretched,

impatient, the brood flees

for another hen.

 

Priests and priestesses behind the altar,

under the fluorescent-lit ciborium

 celebrate their arcane mysteries,

flooding the temple with odors

of oily incense.

 

Supplicant crowds offer their earrings to

Levites; tapping the QR in propitiation,

they wait for words of consecration,

that four-digit verba:

XXXX.

 

John—Christ’s wild forerunner. Likewise

dappled calves point to breaded birds.

Signature sauce baptized and

GrubHub scripture scoured,

now born anew.

 

Indefinite white veils torn to shreds, a rooster

crows. Kyphosis plagued, yet they dance

in anointed ecstasy ‘round the

deep friers’ abyss, chanting:

Eat Mor Chikin.