American Robots
By: Courtney Beck
If there’s a chicken in every pot, who prospers?
Do I? Does my child?
I guess, I’m not quite sold.
I’ve had chicken prepared
A thousand ways in my lifetime.
Quickly, quickly after work.
Quickly, quickly before bed.
Is something missing?
Do we ever stop to ask?
When will be the right time?
Will we ever realize that Chicken Elizabeth,
after a time,
Drowns the senses for a summer salad
prepared from nobody’s garden.
There just wasn’t time to plant this season
And so, they won’t be showing for dinner tonight.
Chicken’s on the menu at their house this evening too.
Courtney Beck Writes 
Hi, Courtney. I’m perplexed as to the interpretation of your poem, American Robot. As a believer, I spiritually thank God for the blessing of a chicken in every pot. Although chicken is more nutritionally desirable and tasty, we need both salad and chicken to be balanced, healthy, and mutually complementary.Be thankful for both & don’t take either for granted. It is what it is. We can have Chicken Elizabeth anytime we want. I’m
thankful we’re blessed, but we don’t need it all the time. I enjoy both chicken soup, even cold leftover chicken and am grateful for them. We Americans are blessed that way. We have enough; even plenty. We work for it, and we get hungry and enjoy it. The tasty circle of life. If we don’t work, we do not eat, the Lord says. That’s what my hungry stomach understands. Perhaps I’m even more authentically thankful in times when a chicken leg is all I have?
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Hey Lonni, thanks for reading. I mostly want the poem to help others think critically about American culture. I often question the “American Dream” and wonder if we’ve missed something there. We live in a society where everyone works so hard for the things that they have they never have time to meet with their neighbors, which to me is sad. I also don’t believe this is what the Lord had in mind when he gave us the ability to work and cook etc. I think we are called to live in community. Ultimately, I think the Kingdom of God and the American Dream can be very different things…which is something worth considering!
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