Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WHITE ROOSTER, by GEORGE O'NEIL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WHITE ROOSTER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah, god! To have a breast like that
Last Line: As fine as fire?
Subject(s): Roosters; Cocks


Ah, God! To have a breast like that
To throw at day,
Thrust for the hands of dawn
To quiver and flare upon.

And a hook of gold to end you
And a bloody flag sewn in your head,
And all yourself an arch
And your soul a white cascade.

With yellow spirals,
Step, step, stalk,
And clutch reluctant loam,
Hard kernels and brown hens
In the brazen blue of noon.

Ah, God! Stab upward with your noise,
Tear at the sky.
With the day gone molten down his throat
And his spine a tilted flame,
What singer could not make one song
As fine as fire?





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