'Awwww....cluck cluck cluck! '

She'd begin
a conversation

& they'd answer her
in fluent chicken

escorting her
around the farm

as if telling her all
the latest gossip.

My aunt
was on speaking terms
with each & every one
of her chickens.

I too knew
every cow by name:

'Hey, Betsy...
och aye the mooo! '

And on first name
terms
with every chicken.

'Hey, Henrietta....
how ya doin'! '

'Atilla the Hen
how's the laying? '

It was only when
Henrietta was chicken soup

or Atilla became
chicken wing

that I stopped
naming them

...couldn't stomack
eating my friends!

Dónall Dempsey

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/eating-my-friends/