RED ROOSTER in your gray coop, O stately creature with tail-feathers red and blue, Yellow and black, You have a comb gay as a parade On your head:

You have pearl trinkets On your feet:

The short feathers smooth along your back Are the dark color of wet rocks, Or the rippled green of ships When I look at their sides through water.

I don't know how you happened to be made So proud, so foolish, Wearing your coat of many colors, Shouting all day long your crooked words, Loud . . . sharp . . . not beautiful!