POEM: Chasing a chicken with ‘a mind of her own’

June 3, 2026

By Patricia Ranzoni

CHASING CHICKENS

The day Gina graduated

we had to chase the bantam

back to the henhouse,

timothy and clover

greener than her yard,

mint, woodruff

a sweeter place to be.

Ed urged one way, I another,

persuading, marking the way,

but she scooted between us

and off she went

as if she'd a mind of her own.

The strawberry patch world 

waited.

—Ranzoni was Bucksport’s poet laureate from 2014 to 2025.

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