Norman MacCaig – Oct 19, Iyengar Level II

One of my favorite “unexpecteds” from my trip to Kauai were the wild chickens everywhere. Evidently each group of people who found the islands brought chickens with them. The chickens interbred and thrived in domestic settings, until Hurricane Iniki in 1994. The hurricane destroyed everyone’s chicken coops, the chickens ran wild and were never recaptured. I love chickens, and even love roosters crowing at 5:00am (makes me feel less alone when I am up practicing). Not everyone feels the same way, I get it. Anyway, MacCaig is pretty far from Kauai, but roosters are roosters!

Cock before dawn

Those dabbing hens I ferociously love

sag on their perches, half deflated.

I'll have none of it. I'm regimental. A plumbline

goes from my head to my toes. I burnish

the dark with my breast.

Lucifer's my blood brother. When I spread my wings

I'm crystal battlements and thunderbolts. I tread the earth

by pretending not to.

The West and the East are measured from me ...

It’s time I crowed. The sun will be waiting.