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