<h2><SPAN name="chap25"></SPAN>RED ROOSTER</h2>
<p class="poem">
Red rooster in your gray coop,<br/>
O stately creature with tail-feathers red and blue,<br/>
Yellow and black,<br/>
You have a comb gay as a parade<br/>
On your head:<br/>
You have pearl trinkets<br/>
On your feet:<br/>
The short feathers smooth along your back<br/>
Are the dark color of wet rocks,<br/>
Or the rippled green of ships<br/>
When I look at their sides through water.<br/>
I don’t know how you happened to be made<br/>
So proud, so foolish,<br/>
Wearing your coat of many colors,<br/>
Shouting all day long your crooked words,<br/>
Loud… sharp… not beautiful!<br/></p>
<p class="left">
HILDA CONKLING</p>
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