At the National Poultry Show: A Premier Event

Register: Leghorn (Large Fowl     Soft Feather     Male or Female)

She’s keeping her head down for now—

It’s another so-so morning     Officer Cockerell in charge

Pecker, pecker, Lothario lecher     screeching every dawn

Rrrr Rrrr Rrrr! Rrrr Rrrr Rrrr!     Wake the dead he would   

He may raise the sun     but shine as it does     he’s no king crow

I must admit, I most admire     his red upstanding comb

How his wattle loops and glides     inviting a nip to his glossy breast

His tail feathers sweeping     long and black     form a perfect curve

Yet his shanks and spurs     scales and toenails     no decent hen deserves

How those cluckers detest me     since I laid that double yolker last May

I’m forced to forage in dust for food     biddies flocking to scoff at me

Crowding my nest     turds on my straw     squawking wherever I roost

I’m forced to sleep     always standing up     my eyes half open     half shut

Officer Cockerell’s claims     if he had his way     I’d lay two a day

But nary a Single-Comb     Brown-Leghorn stud     will be romping on me

Pecker, pecker     Rrrr Rrrr Rrrr!     We’ll see who wins the grand prize

I’m building up my eggs by size     And I’ll be the one who’s Best of Show

Fowl     Poultry     Chickens     Birds    Jealousy    Sex    

#NationalPoultryShow

Margaret Koger is a school media specialist with a writing habit. She lives near the river in Boise, Idaho. Her poetry adds new connections to the wayward web of life.  See a few more poems on: Collective Unrest, Inez, Voice of Eve, Headway, and Tiny Seeds Literary Journal.