The poem reads like a short string of instructions, some addressed to a listener and some to the speaker himself. It opens with "Be a stranger," which could mean keeping a distance, or it could mean staying open to the unfamiliar. Then comes a odd, almost teasing question: in the afternoon, who thinks about night? The speaker seems to be saying that we don't need to worry ahead of time about what hasn't arrived yet.
The hen is the most concrete image. The speaker hands the judgment over to her: she will tell him when "the mess paid off." That phrase suggests that some kind of untidy effort, whether in life or in work, is going on, and that the result will be clear only later, and not through analysis. The poem trusts a simple animal's sense of things more than human planning.
The closing "Let be" settles everything. The mood is relaxed, a little wry, and quietly accepting. It feels like someone shrugging off worry and waiting patiently.