A decade and a half ago,
Esperanza was just a chicken,
born with a limp.
Her chicken-mates bullied her:
beak pokes to the neck,
until the feathers fell.
Esperanza developed neck alopecia
I took Esperanza in the basket
of my old bicycle,
along with three rabbits
with incurable diseases,
and rode all the way to Rotterdam.
There was a farm for underprivileged species.
I gave Esperanza some pocket money
and said farewell.
Fifteen years passed.
I haven’t heard from Esperanza
until one evening, on the TV,
I saw she had flourished.
After arriving at Handicapped farm,
scarred by the cruelty of bullying,
but equipped by the true self-determination,
Esperanza wrote a new story:
She worked hard,
laying an egg every day,
filling the farm with limping chickens.
But only Esperanza had neck Alopecia,
and neck scars.
The other animals only saw the empire.
The new generation believed:
all chickens were born with a limp,
and that heroes have neck alopecia.
The old generation said Esperanza was just lucky
she got some pocket money.
The limping chickens saw a role model.
They all shaved the feathers on their necks,
and tattooed there scars,
just like mother-Esperanza.
And this was the story
written by Esperanza.
