S.A. Leger
Fox
“It is almost impossible to sex the birds, which is problematic since the hen is tenderer than the cockerel.” -Maggie Beer
But I wonder,
do teeth tasked
with only one
purpose (killing) feel
female tenderness through
chicken wire? Do
inquisitive
feminine
tilts of the head
translate to the palate
as worthy? Worthy beyond
death? Worthy of stew?
I pick feathers from
the bills of roosters—
cannibals of hen legs
pulled through the coop.
The roosters
avoid my gaze.
S.A. Leger is a writer and ornithologist from Newfoundland, Canada. Her poems have recently appeared in or are forthcoming from Pleiades, The Hopkins Review, The Los Angeles Review, SWWIM, and The Malahat Review. She was shortlisted for the Apogee Poetry Chapbook Award. When not writing, she wanders through the woods at the brink of the North Atlantic with her wife and dachshund.
Return to November 2024 Edition
“It is almost impossible to sex the birds, which is problematic since the hen is tenderer than the cockerel.” -Maggie Beer
But I wonder,
do teeth tasked
with only one
purpose (killing) feel
female tenderness through
chicken wire? Do
inquisitive
feminine
tilts of the head
translate to the palate
as worthy? Worthy beyond
death? Worthy of stew?
I pick feathers from
the bills of roosters—
cannibals of hen legs
pulled through the coop.
The roosters
avoid my gaze.
S.A. Leger is a writer and ornithologist from Newfoundland, Canada. Her poems have recently appeared in or are forthcoming from Pleiades, The Hopkins Review, The Los Angeles Review, SWWIM, and The Malahat Review. She was shortlisted for the Apogee Poetry Chapbook Award. When not writing, she wanders through the woods at the brink of the North Atlantic with her wife and dachshund.
Return to November 2024 Edition