Category Archives: poetry

by Chris Wardle How else but inverted,could this trusting Soulbe brought from the topsy-turvyof Pokhara’s bazaar? The soft gloom of her down,now up,mirroring the dark deedsoon to be executed. With calm reassurance she is welcomedto this quiet corner of the food forest,and thanked,ahead of prayer. Bismillah … Two hearts suspended,the blade of separationmust come asContinue reading “Solitary Shade”

by Dylann Germann In the stillness of the night when all things moveCritters and coyotes scatter dust to their scentsAnd the cattle sleep and rest their hooves The rooster restless in its wake sang no dirge of its escape Under the moonlight and through ocotillo laden fenceThe bird trod forward with everything to loseAnd nowContinue reading “Be The Rooster”

by Haritima Sharma sunlight on a blade of grass,rain drops on the top of her head,the ground below her feet,dust bathing with her friends,the chirping of her chicks,the warmth of her mother’s breast,the front of her beak,moving around her legs,pecking on the ground,spreading her wings to fly,perching up on white fences,foraging in the day,singing atContinue reading “An Itinerary of Everything Henrietta Can’t Remember”

by Sarah Rooney I hold you in the palm of my hand,little scrawny creatures—smalltyrannosaurus rexes. Those chirps from your enclosure and the sweetway you huddle close before fallingasleep. Barely a whisper of warm against my skin. A few weeks in,small feathers molt and descend asyour neck grows and pink shows. I call your names, crooningContinue reading “Roost”

by Emma Williquette Sole survivor of three separate attacks on the chicken coop on our friends’ farm.I named her Penny because I was twelve years old, she had copper feathers, and my creative expertise was quite lacking.I was not permitted to have animals inside the house.Or outside the house.Or anywhere near the house.Penny was aContinue reading “Penny.”

by Cecil Wilde all i really want is:enough spacefor half a dozen chickensand someoneto cook the eggs for Cecil Wilde is an award winning, inky-fingered storyteller based in Naarm (Melbourne, Australia). Their work has recently appeared in The Slab Press’s Vivid Worlds anthology and in Tree and Stone Magazine. They’re currently having a mausoleum constructedContinue reading “realistic expectations”

by Paul Hostovsky We were talking about chickens and I said,How did we get onto chickens?And you said, Why do you always do that?And I said, Do what? And you said,Why do you always want to go backin the conversation and retraceyour steps? And I said, Because I’m curiousabout how I got here. And youContinue reading “Chicken or Egg”

by Daniel Z. McKenzie SinkingIn the family couchI’m sheltered in a humble haven,Fleeting respite from the clangingOf cramping mortal subcreation.Within the mellow country clamorA final tense, then exhalation,My soul can bathe     In liberation. Creak!My sister rolls the sliding doorAnd beams a prodding grin.There nestled ‘neath her nodding chin:A leghorn-maransWith silk feathers for handsAnd a dishonest gleamContinue reading “A Homecoming Détente”

by JL Peridot Where did you go, my gossamer boy?You crowed your summer song too softand one verse short.Sunset clucks in your absence:wistful memory of a voice,pecking my cheek and disappearingon the autumn breeze. JL Peridot writes love letters to the future on devices from the past. She lives with a couple of good eggsContinue reading “That One Summer (Chicken Edition)”

by Spencer Keene Another egg slips from youAnd you feel half-an-omeletteLighter—brighter now underThe barn’s single glowing eyeThat blinks open with the dusk. You pluck three chin feathersAnd watch them curl down toPockets of stale hay like wingsFluttering to Earth in searchOf Farmer’s empty pillowcase. Sometimes you wonder aboutMother—her plush breast andAuburn bloom of plumageAlways theContinue reading “Ode to a Hen”