There Was A Rooster Poem by Indira Renganathan

There was a rooster in the neighbourhood
Gallant, bouffant, royal
White like peace, valorously crowned

Droned to a victorious red beak
Clucking with a battle of chicks
His puissant, repetitive alarm..not a nuisance
To me a sweet consonance
Whilst every note of his phrase
In uniform rhythmicity out from his beak
Wide open through thousand microphones

I used to be the staunch spectator
Recalling my bygone music
I used to be the admirer
To his crowing in gentle, genuine stance
I used to be the best critic of his concert..
Day and morrow rose timelessly routine
By his crowing to the sun's dismay

Yet, oh God! !
Against all my admiration
Adversely he strangled me one day

His unusual alarm like that of a chit
Syllables clearly 'amma, amma' to perception
In the darkness of a witchy night
Strangled me sharply, then sawing
Point by point my neck bone
That I became breathlessly silent..
From the next morrow
In search of him me in his netherworld flock