Reflexes.

"It's just like communion," the other American said. "There's a body and bood and then you eat it. Except we don't drink the blood. And at least we cook the chicken first."

Maybe I'm too new, maybe I just don't see it. I hope the chicken didn't suffer too much, but it sure took her a long time to die.

"Those are just leftover relexes," the others said. I nodded. We kill chickens in the US too, but we like to torture them first. And we never seem to look them in the eye.

These are just leftover reflexes. I come from a land without hunger, from a place packaged and polished and ready for sale. But I have been here a while and I have seen too much death to say, "Well that was just a chicken."