Shadows Of Chickens

Chickens practice the artistry

of creating chicken images

from the missing light of afternoon sun

on their northern wall at the winter solstice.

These shadows, outlines of Barred Rock,

themselves a hatching of black and white,

suggest that to throw their likenesses

on walls is part of their purpose.

Lazy, lovely, strutting, casting

their sketches against the sunny wall,

a hen portrays lordosis in profile

and the cock steps on.