“A Chicken Ain’t Nuthin’ But a Bird,” Cab Calloway

 A study in blank verse

The predators of chickens: people worldwide,   

coyotes, foxes, possums, owls and bears.

Diseases chickens get from one another--

pullorum, avian influenza,

and also bumblefoot and also thrush.

America’s most common breeds of chicken

include Ameraucana, Plymouth Rock;

of course, New Hampshire, Java, Pyncheon, Leghorn

as well as Jersey Giant, Buckeye, Holland, 

Rhode Island Red, Rhode Island White and bantams.

Some chicken dishes: chicken cacciatore, 

or chicken piri piri, chicken kiev,

a chicken yakitori, vindaloo, 

or chicken noodle soup, a favorite

of people who are sick with a cold,

or hot and spicy chicken feet dim sum.

I don't know why chickens cross those roads;

Nevertheless, I agree with Wikipedia:

a chicken’s no more than a feathered dinosaur.