Red Rooster

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!