Sexing Chicks

by Jared Carter

Yeah, right, I know, it sounds like fun. It’s not.
Somewhere in ag school there’s a course they teach
to poultry specialists on how to spot –
among a hundred nestlings newly hatched –
which ones are male, unable to lay eggs
for factory farms. They’re strictly out of luck.
Dazed, minutes old, on spindly legs,
they’re down the tubes. And no one gives a cluck.
Listen, if this seems strange – political
correctness gone around the bend – I had
a job once holding eggs up to a light.
Inside, they had to be identical.
Each time you make an omelet now, be glad
some guy like me prescreened your every bite.

© 2007 by Jared Carter