Take Him Away

Dirty stinking Chicken box
born in prison
served swimming in oils
dirty
greasy
Chicken Chow-Mein
- and that’s all I wanted
to suck bamboo shoots
and boring onion

I hate the food court at the mall
row upon row
of caged animals
half cooped-up crazy
“GO FREE RANGE!”
I scream at them
but they just sit there squawking
scratching talons
through fatty grain

The mothers
have holes in their skin
their raw flabby legs
pecked to the peeling crust
from boredom self harm

The daughters
hollow eyed
with cholesterol filled hearts

The sons
tattooed into thinking their postcode is Beethoven
- that the road to heaven
is paved with cheap hair product

The fathers
out of breath
imitating pregnancy
with lager fed babies
beneath hairy breasts

“GO FREE RANGE!” I yell
but nobody even blinks
I am the walkman without headphones

I think of my Grandfather
lying in a hospital bed
wounded
surrounded by caged birds
all of them screaming insane
flapping their featherless wings
against wire cages
all of them
squawking awful fear
in the middle of the night
room upon room of dying birds
wing broken here
beak bent there
bowls removed
and armchairs all infected

This is where caged birds go to die
this is where a once proud man
of old English standard
and stiff upper lip
cries in his dreams
and longs to fly again

This is where
all the half cooped-up crazies
will go to die
and I eat my Chicken Chow-Mein
struggling to take another bite