Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

The chicken crossed the road because it was time for change! The chicken wanted change!

The chicken stood alone.

The crisp morning air blew roughly against its feathers, silent but as cold as ice. She gazed across the road, her beady eyes darting from left to right and a quiet chirp the only sound emanating from an ageing beak.

Her feet moved ever so often, a vast difference to the millions of thoughts flowing through her mind.

Chances are you’ve heard of this chicken and the accompanying age old question of “why did the chicken cross the road?” I will attempt to explain what I alone saw on a cold February morning.

You see, dear reader, that ‘the other side’ you heard about isn’t the other side of the road, but ‘change’.

This chicken wanted change.

She turned her head to the left and listened to the slow rumble of a danfo bus approaching. Its wheels moved slowly crunching on loose gravel, almost hypnotic to the distracted chicken. She was told she had the power to make her own decisions in life. To be anything from KFC to Suya or even a proud mother. But this chicken had known increasing hardship for the past year.

I could tell from the way her thin neck hung at an awkward angle, she had been feeling the current economic recession. Her generous owner, who made sure both her and her chicks were always fed, suddenly stopped feeding them. The price of feed had doubled and she could no longer afford it. The chicken was left alone to fend for herself and her chicks. She was lucky her owner had not decided to end it immediately.

She shook slightly as she stood looking on, and I could tell that she had come a long way. people who usually threw their leftovers out in the trash no longer did so, because there was no leftover to throw out. The more painful reality was that while she wandered around searching for survival, she had to escape many attempts on her life. She was not safe at her owners house anymore, she was not safe anywhere anymore.

As much as I can tell you about what I saw that cold morning, I saw an average working bird, pushed too far. she had too many eggs to nurture, too many fellow chickens to sustain. She had a great future, but economic recession wouldn’t let her be great. I saw a lonely bird looking at the country’s problems with crushed heart and pierced dreams. she must have thought along the lines of Captain James T Kirk “ To boldly go where no chicken has gone before”, or maybe she thought “ it is my responsibility, i must do something”.

Still, she waited. The metaphorical gears of her mind could almost be heard whirring as thousands of thoughts came into being. when would be the perfect time to step forward? What if I wait too long? Or was she thinking of the unhatched eggs waiting for her back in the secret coop, alone in the world, waiting for the mother that will never return. Thrust upon their own decisions, their own judgement with no one to turn to.

It was then that she heard me. I shifted my weight slightly, which led to a sharp crack of twigs under my feet in an otherwise quiet street. She looked into my eyes and I saw nothing but sadness in the beady black circles. She was probably wondering what I was going to do next. Would I try and stop her? Should she run down the road squawking frantically?

I felt like a negotiator with a megaphone gazing up at somebody preparing to leap from a building. But this megaphone is broken. ‘I can’t speak chicken’ I remember thinking. Maybe if somebody had listened to her chirps, things would have ended up differently. The chicks could have grown up to have chicks of their own.

Whatever the answer, whatever the reason for her choice, the chicken made her move. She crossed the road and joined the protest on the other side. I feel she got what she wanted, to stand for what she believed in, to make her voice heard, to demand for change. Albeit in her own little way.

In the end, all that was left was a jubilant teenager walking away with his friends, laughing along the way, with a stray chicken in his hand. He felt justified, he had decided to join the protest against the government, and he had gotten a reward. It all happened too quickly for me to comprehend, different questions kept running through my head, was this the most courageous chicken ever? or was it just a chicken crossing the road without any motive?

I buttoned up my rumpled suit, as I waited for my bike man, he should have been here. I was going to be late for work.