At the Butcher’s

From the car

she watches

a lynch mob of a boy

at the tarp and bamboo

butcher stall

behead a chicken.

Into steaming water

he flings it,

the fowl still alive,

before turning it

into leg, breast, wing,

and neck, slapping

the parts on a newspaper

sheet to be weighed

on a pair of rigged up

scales. Next morning,

reading of leg, arm, chest,

and neck in items

of news, she decides

to give up meat.