ROOSTER-DOODLE-DOO

  by Cappy Love Hanson


The fancy barred-rock cock grabs a hen
by the neck feathers, scrubs his vent 
against hers, smears her with ecstatic seed.  
Struts around the barnyard, proclaiming 
his virility and that of his ancestors
back to the Ark.  Every egg that’s laid, the hen 
clucks and chuckles over.  The rooster 
cock-a-doodle-doo’s as if he’s squeezed 
the miraculous orb out himself.  The banty 
that all the eggs are set beneath to incubate
knows his secret, but even she can keep 
it mum beneath her skirt of dowdy brown 
just so long--until the eggs that never hatch 
turn black and reek with rot.