Poetry

Reuters photo

By

Penn Kemp

By Cluck or Chuckle, Chuck Him

To the Chinese, 2017 is the Year

of the Fire Rooster. But Tibetans

celebrate the Year of the Red Hen.

Replace Donald Trump, the ultimate

Red Rooster, with our domestic

free range pullet. (Don’t think

grilled chicken!)

Think Stravinsky’s Fire Bird.

In his Russian folk tale, an evil demon

has thirteen princesses under his spell.

Think Trump and the original States.

Where is the prince to defeat him with

the help of Firebird’s magic feather??

Who will free the distressed princesses?

Think The Little Red Hen. “’I

can do it myself,’ she said. And

she did.” And we can.

If we remember who we are. Americans,

you can. Just do it.

Penn Kemp

London ON performance poet, activist and playwright Penn Kemp is the League of Canadian Poets’ Spoken Word Artist of 2015 and their 40th Life Member. Her latest works are Barbaric Cultural Practice, and two anthologies, Performing Women and Women and Multimedia, which she edited for http://poets.ca/feministcaucus/livingarchives/. Her new play, The Triumph of Teresa Harris, will be performed at The Palace Theatre in March; see https://teresaharrisdreamlife.wordpress.com/.