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