Poetry

Variations on a Line by Thoreau

All our winged thoughts are turned to poultry.
                        — Henry David Thoreau, "Walking"

  1. Our flying fancies transform into domestic fowl.
  2. Our thoughts drink Red Bull and get a job.
  3. Thinks
    like chicken.
  4. The stuff in our heads is all
    flying around for a minute, then placed
    in a coop and used for subsistence.
  5. A family sits to Thanksgiving dinner ("This turkey
    is so delicious and tender!") and Icarus
    the dog watches quietly from his cage
    in the darkest corner of the house.
  6. Our thoughts had state-of-the-art rocket propulsion systems
    and we got addicted to those rotisserie chickens from Wal-Mart,
    which can get sorta expensive, and so we hadda sell off all our
    winged thoughts
    but thur still down at the pawn shop if we really need 'em—
    ICARUS don't take the wish-bone yet it's still got
    some meat on it.
  7. We suffer from obesity, and our thoughts are too fat
    to fly. However, once completely digested, they slide
    down the colon really fast and ramp skyward!
    and change to eggs, and float obediently
    towards the fridge.
  8. Biologists were startled to discover a new species of turkey
    thriving in American suburbs. These new turkeys
    are prone to suicidal hallucinations about soaring
    like golden eagles
    through wide desert skies,
    until hunters shoot them for lunch meat.
  9. We winged creatures have seen
    our reflections, sun-baked and featherless
    in the deep mirror of a lake, the window
    of a microwave oven.