Open Mic at Art6 Gallery

Open Mic at Art6 Gallery

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Capon

Capon
definition - a rooster castrated so to improve its flesh for food

Dad shared with me
a story about my great grandmother
and how she raised capons,
getting money for them every Christmas.
She raised them in the yard,
aggressive birds turned docile
by altering their nature.
They grew and grew
and my dad told me
you could always tell when
the capons were coming by,
the sound of those birds
bounding across the yard,
growing heavy with time,
full of flesh that someone else
would eventually savor.
When they were ready,
my great grandmother
called the market to have crates
dropped off at the house.
She would load the birds up,
and they would be picked
and taken away.
A few days later,
she would get a check
for those capons,
just in time for Christmas

5 comments:

Claudia said...

nice story telling here.. i used to visit my uncle's farm during holidays..was a paradise for kids...cows, pigs, chicken...but always wept when it was slaughtering day...

Buddah Moskowitz said...

This was excellent Vernon. Just enough detail and your perspective is perfect. Fantastic write there, thanks
Mosk

Brian Miller said...

nice bit of story telling vernon...glad she crated them...the slaughtering of them is pretty brutal...

Brian Miller said...

vernon didnt you play football for VA tech...smiles....

hedgewitch said...

Parable of life in the western world--the lower on the food chain, the more you can't be allowed the aggression, and must be tenderized for consumption. Also, just an excellent piece read literally.