He comes for honey, sweetness of the meaty
earth he plants his flag in. Sunlight pollinates
the horizon with gold. He moves like a
rolling mountain through the centuries.
Fried chicken sundays, dark flower bees,
Teeth tear state lines through poultry territory.
Two bucks for a flayed bird. Three for a rooster.
He examines their skulls and decides that his bones
make him superior, he has a greater capacity for kindness.
But when it’s almost too late he realizes how beautiful
their feathers are, having been plucked from skin
and decides it a worthy endeavor to arrange them
in glass cases for public visual consumption.
Slowly chewing chicken ivory now, he doesn’t
even notice how the honey turns metallic and red.
Ellen Webre is a Southern California poet greatly inspired by her friends in the Orange County poetry scene and their prompts. She is a regular at the Ugly Mug poetry readings and has been featured there, the Coffee Cartel and Mosaic in UC Riverside.
