Thank you chicken
I'm only alive thanks to a chicken
My great grandmother delivered her son
on the dirt packed floor
at the back of the kitchen
in kandanur
He came out silent
and was put away
by the door leading to the backyard
while they tended to the mother
urgently binding the bleeding
while she lay prone, shallow breathing.
He lay there idle, content, quiet... dead?
till a curious chicken came a pecking.
A siren wail brought the midwife back
who picked him up from amongst the vegetable peel
and so he lived and had my dad who lived and had me
and I'm here to tell the tale
thank you dear chicken
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