CHICKEN

It’s difficult to admit
that I learned
how to live 
from a chicken
but there I was
standing in the mud
behind the coop
reliving it all,
the screaming the weeping
the cheek pressed to the cold bathroom floor
the wheel turning
walls closing in
when this hen—

this little hen
came clucking and pecking at the bottom of my boots
as if to say
excuse me,
no crying,
there’s a gift beneath your feet.