I walk into love like how you walk into an intersection –

Quickly and knowing that at any moment

You could be hit by something bigger.

Closing my eyes, I tilt forward and pray,

Hoping that it won’t hurt,

And fantasize about how it will feel.

I imagine the warmth of the engine

As I am kissed

And am sent flying.

The sudden jolt and freewheeling joy

Of soaring through the air

Is dangerously enticing.

But it’s the sudden stop that scares me.

The chance of getting hurt is immense

And things can get messy if they go awry.

So why should this chicken cross the road?

To peck at the grains and seeds of what might be?

Following mere fodder for the heart?

I am both poetry and poultry in motion,

The last laugh to a dry joke,

The one who makes it to the other side.