stdClass Object
(
[ID] => 21320
[post_author] => 31
[post_date] => 2020-12-16 18:44:29
[post_date_gmt] => 2020-12-16 18:44:29
[post_content] => Last June my sister released a young cockerel
in the university arboretum
after it revealed its gender, crowing
experimentally in a hoarse voice.
Her husband used to wring the necks of the cocks
while listening to hip-hop but he left.
Now I’m at the garage filling up with petrol
and pinned to the counter is a mugshot
of a cockerel, blown-up A4.
Its prehistoric face peers out, red wattles,
a comb styled to the left like Elvis’s
and a cravat of fine gold satin feathers.
Underneath it says is this your cock?
I take a picture, WhatsApp my sister
your bird? Second chance? She replies no fucking way,
promiscuous creatures that upset the neighbours
and tear members of their family to pieces.
I’ve enough of that on my plate with the boys.
[post_title] => Boys
[post_excerpt] =>
[post_status] => publish
[comment_status] => closed
[ping_status] => closed
[post_password] =>
[post_name] => boys
[to_ping] =>
[pinged] =>
[post_modified] => 2021-01-11 14:23:16
[post_modified_gmt] => 2021-01-11 14:23:16
[post_content_filtered] =>
[post_parent] => 0
[guid] => https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/?post_type=poems&p=21320
[menu_order] => 0
[post_type] => poems
[post_mime_type] =>
[comment_count] => 0
[filter] => raw
[meta_data] => stdClass Object
(
[wpcf-published-in] => First published in Poetry News, Winter 2020.
[wpcf-date-published] => 2020
[wpcf-summary-description] => A winner of the Members' Poems competition in the Winter 2020 issue of Poetry News. The competition, on the theme of 'Youth', was judged by Phoebe Power.
[wpcf-rights-information] =>
[wpcf-poem-award] =>
[wpcf_pr_belongs] =>
)
[poet_data] => stdClass Object
(
[ID] => 21282
[forename] =>
[surname] =>
[title] => Vanessa Lampert
[slug] => vanessa-lampert
[content] => Vanessa Lampert is a poet and acupuncturist from Wallingford, Oxfordshire. She won the Café Writers and Ver poetry prizes in 2020 and came second in the Fish and International Oxford Brookes poetry prizes. Vanessa co-edits the online and print magazine The Alchemy Spoon. Her pamphlet On Long Loan was published by Live Canon in October 2020.
)
)
stdClass Object
(
[ID] => 21282
[forename] =>
[surname] =>
[title] => Vanessa Lampert
[slug] => vanessa-lampert
[content] => Vanessa Lampert is a poet and acupuncturist from Wallingford, Oxfordshire. She won the Café Writers and Ver poetry prizes in 2020 and came second in the Fish and International Oxford Brookes poetry prizes. Vanessa co-edits the online and print magazine The Alchemy Spoon. Her pamphlet On Long Loan was published by Live Canon in October 2020.
)
Last June my sister released a young cockerel
in the university arboretum
after it revealed its gender, crowing
experimentally in a hoarse voice.
Her husband used to wring the necks of the cocks
while listening to hip-hop but he left.
Now I’m at the garage filling up with petrol
and pinned to the counter is a mugshot
of a cockerel, blown-up A4.
Its prehistoric face peers out, red wattles,
a comb styled to the left like Elvis’s
and a cravat of fine gold satin feathers.
Underneath it says is this your cock?
I take a picture, WhatsApp my sister
your bird? Second chance? She replies no fucking way,
promiscuous creatures that upset the neighbours
and tear members of their family to pieces.
I’ve enough of that on my plate with the boys.