chicken dinner

you don't like
to hear your mother
talk about
how her mother
and grandmother
used to grab
a chicken from
the back yard
and ring it's neck
for supper.
you remember
those fat white
harmless
chickens when
you were a kid.
you used to chase
them around
the bricked
in yard nestled
on a narrow
street in Italian
south philly.
you are glad that
you never had to
witness
the ringing of
a chicken's neck.
it might have changed
you somehow,
and not for
the better.