"Whatever they know they thrive even so"

Chickens I have often wondered what chickens know I know they know to be chickens and that Seems enough for them as it ought to be For me but still I wonder about it Their world is simpler their earth is more flat But they know to be themselves even though If I heard they knew more I might doubt it But then I see the way they look at me A chicken seems an automatic thing If to be admired for its persistence Waking and sleeping scratching and pecking Seemingly unexamined existence When looking at a chicken eye to eye I see neither of us knows anything But living to try by grace not to die To handle whatever is happening I doubt a rooster ever thinks of death Except perhaps to see it happens when It happens that the cockadoodle breath Stills for the heedless in headlessness then We humans fret about dying so much The thought of it overshadows our days Yet though chickens end up frying and such They scratch and peck content with chicken ways I have often wondered what chickens know They seem to accept their mortality Whatever they know they thrive even so And in that way they know better than me +Steven Curtis Lance Copyright MMX