by Chaitra Kotasthane
In the forests of Indonesia, there is a church made in the image of a chicken.
It was built by a man who was following instructions he claimed to have received in a divine vision, and it was originally meant to resemble a dove.
I wonder — what does a dove have that a chicken does not?
I recall, as a child, the simple joy of running barefoot in the yard as chicks poured out the coop, each one golden as a dandelion, and bright as a wish.
I remember reading William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow” — glazed with rainwater, beside the white chickens — infused with a quiet wonder. Williams had been a doctor in New Jersey, scribbling little poems on prescription pads between treating his patients. I was in high school.
Just what depends on the old wheelbarrow, anyway?
Whilst in medical college, I came across Mary Rueffle’s “Red”, a crass and hilarious response to Williams’ poem. By now, I’d become intensely familiar with frustration — you left the wheelbarrow out, and it rained, and now the chickens are filthy!
I think of the distant, inaccessible beauty of doves, and find myself filling with a silly sort of frustration again. Does anyone know what a dove sounds like? Have you heard a dove sing, or even squawk? Compare it now to the emphatic cry of the rooster who heralds the dawn. Compare it now to the hen that provides us with eggs and meat, as the wine and bread one receives at communion. I ask myself — why should the dove be God’s designated messenger, and not the chicken?
Today, the Chicken Church has become a popular tourist destination. Built into its catacombs are twelve rooms, which men and women of all religions use for worship. But before that, for the greater part of two decades, the building had fallen into disrepair. It is well, then, that the Chicken claimed the church, and like a patron saint, helped make it beloved.
Chaitra Kotasthane is a medical student whose work has appeared in various literary magazines and anthologies. She enjoys reading, writing, collecting strange trinkets, and walking in the rain, whenever she earns a respite from studying.