*
I TELL DOLLY
about the battery hens
700 sets of feet knowing earth
for the first time Do you live
so metal an existence
your life lasts only 18 months I used to
eat four eggs a day
with spicy cheese and mustard
I used to want to be a lawyer
With feathers that go outside
only to get dead Did you know
they use gas and then what
hand or machine to break
That animal processed
shifts of light for 547 days
until its two feet fused into one
its body rupturing its own body
and shitting My ears hurt
from being so full and I can’t get up
to lay yellow flowers around the length
of my skin My insides stop collecting light
and I’m finally one of those trees
in Oregon There was a name
for the dead ones that still broke sky
*
ILK journal 