by: Robin Becker

While we were not looking, they increased

the number of Birds per Minute (BPM)

at the poultry processing plant. When line 

 

speeds increase, accidents increase, two

feet apart isn’t six, the USDA

goes along, squeezing workers together

 

as the National Chicken Council dictates.

The underlying condition of poultry

workers is murder by design. Ask the woman—

 

blue, cold— handling eviscerated carcasses

 on the refrigeration side.

 

 

I’m Robin Becker, a poet and retired professor, spending month #5 of the international covid-19 epidemic in a rustic cabin in New Hampshire. I’m working on a series of poems called “Underlying Conditions.” My most recent collection of poems, THE BLACK BEAR INSIDE ME, came out in 2018 with the University of Pittsburgh Press. For twenty-five years, I taught creative writing at the Pennsylvania State University.

 

Photo source: National Chicken Council