Malaika Favorite
The State of the Chicken Coop
The debate erupts in the chicken coop
Several hens clucking at once
Silenced by Lord Rooster
Pronouncing: Clucks are fake news
The sky is not falling
The dust we bathe in is clean
The water we drink
Is not polluted with nuclear waste
The symposium at one p.m.
Is not the conversation we had at Mar-a-Lago
Our table was in the center of the chicken coop
We roosters ate first; the hens followed
The other guest wore ear muffs
They heard nothing we assessed
We imported the wine from Russia
It was a deal made before the election
The corn was smuggled from Mexico
Blighted with disease
The cook was an illegal hen
With broken toes on crusty feet
She was deported
Before dinner was served
Nothing new happened that the media
Was able to report falsely
They repeated old news
One hundred times
In seventy-five ways
Of saying nothing
Did they read my morning tweet?
Did the sun arrive on time?
Don’t listen to green monkeys telling long tales
The wall will rise around the chicken coop
Malaika Favorite has received her BFA and MFA in art from LSU Baton Rouge, LA. Malaika won the 2016 Broadside Lotus Press Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award for her collection of poems, ASCENSION, published in 2016 by Broadside Lotus Press. Her publications include: DREAMING AT THE MANOR, Finishing Line Press 2014, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT, published by New Orleans Poetry Journal Press, 1991.
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