Brother Cock
there is a rooster
living in the woods
near the stream
where i stop on my way home
black he is
with red wattles and comb
i first knew of him
hearing him crow
when i stopped once in the morning
startled i was
then wary
for i feared a rooster
when i was small
and my first memory
is the dream i had
of crazy bird eyes and talons
and my father
killing him with a hoe
so i was nervous
the second time i saw him
when he sidled toward me
in little jerks
eyes blazing
i backed away
later i realized
that he is wary too
and we became friendly
sort of
and i called him
brother cock
now i think of him
as a hermit eccentric
though because we don’t speak the same language
i cannot tell what kind
half a mile from the sprawling hen-house machine
from grain and warmth and shelter
and all the fucking he could stand
out here in the woods
alone
a refugee from the factory
is he a monk or a rebel
or is he just shy
or sick of the chicks’ critiquing
or worn down by beaks and pecks
and choking on methane
did he reject the life of privilege
on principle
or does he maybe
just want to sing the dawning down
alone
painting the sky
with his rough song
Today
today
finally spring
not tentative and hesitant
like the crocus and the snowdrop
not yearning and coaxing
like the red birds in the treetops
not the clenched potentiality
of the tight buds and green sprouts
but triumphant and glorious
suddenly verdant and urgent
jonquil
tulip
forsythia
bright life raging
in the high up
haze of green
in the underbrush
the sudden rush
of wide brown waters
in the low place
i have come to love
first south wind of the season
high water everywhere
ditches and streams
and fields
all is changing
and ever same
spiraling and spinning
out of and into
within and beyond
the wholly unnamable flame
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