Flannery's chicken

the man from New York

came

down

to report on the chicken

that could

walk backwards.

he took the dirt

road

to Flannery O'Conner's

house

in Georgia

and watched

as the chicken prowled

around in the

dirt,

pecking at bugs

and finally performing

his impossible

feat.

Flannery was only seven

and never

got to see the snippet

of film

shown in theaters

years later of her chicken

walking backwards.

but it never left her,

the amusement of what a

world it was.

strange indeed.

nothing being what it seems.