January 2024
Bio Note: After retiring from a teaching career in Design at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, I started to write poetry. Now, several hundred published poems and three books later, I’m trying the memoir genre, writing a series of short, personal pieces I call “episodes,” some followed by an encapsulating poem. These episodes are the base of my fourth book, in progress.
Tale of a City Chicken
Woolworth stores in Chicago once sold live chicks at Easter time. I was six when my aunt bought one for me. I named my chicken Suzie. She slept in a crate on the enclosed porch and I’d let her loose in our apartment – she’d happily trail me around the kitchen, but always pecked my mother – White-feathered Sue grew a droopy red comb that covered one beady, black eye. When crowing began and neighbors complained, we knew Suzie was a rooster, not a hen. One day I came home and found Suzie gone, sent to a farm, my parents said, where she’d have other chickens to play with. But I saw her crate by the garbage can, and that Sunday, we had chicken for dinner.
Originally published in The Inquisitive Eater New School Food, May 2015
©2024 Patricia Williams
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to say what it is about the poem you like. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL