Jesus and The Chickens

I Saw Jesus, Part Two: The View from Angela's Deck

I saw Jesus 

with a big dumb smile on his face

- I think he was high again -

looking over the backyard fence
at the chickens running around in our yard,
so I asked him, "What's up, dude?"

"I really don't know what I was thinking
when I made chickens. I can not, for the life of me, 

remember what that was all about."

"Now worries, dude," I said,
"the eggs are good and they don't
take much care and feeding."

"Cool," he said, still grinning.

"Hey man," he said,
"nice job on the raised vegetable beds!"

"Thanks. We needed those to keep the gophers
from eating what we plant."

and then I stared at him,
and he knew I was waiting
for an explanation on gophers.

"Dude," he chuckled, "I, uh, really, uh,
I mean, what can I say? 

There was this whole
rats, mice, squirrels thing happening one afternoon,
and I think left the room for a minute and when I came back..."
...he shrugged his shoulders for emphasis

"Gophers!"

"It's cool, man," I said,
"not everything can work out
the way you plan it."

"Exactly what I was saying, man, exactly!"

and he smiled and walked away
mumbling something about grand design
and man-nipples and Paris Hilton
while fumbling for his lighter

and the chickens went on about their business
as the clouds rolled by 

in their puffy white perfection
that Jesus never made mention of
but he should have
because they were beautiful.


Ken Owen  Van Niddy Press   April 2014