Pam Haas

18 Months Without a Head

The crowing reaches morning sunlight

as an unhurried gurgle, alive still       & Lloyd Olsen

whimpers from nightmare to daybreak, dry heaves Mike’s

sunrise anthem. Perched among the hens, the rooster

need not have frightened the neighbors outside

closed curtains. No one wanted to see the rooster without a

warning. Even Lloyd, especially Lloyd who missed

dinner & lost grip that September

evening to axe a species into legend. His bird unhinges

simple realities—sky is blue, can’t live with

head cut off. Scuffing wings announce an en-

lightened body flipping off quaking onlookers. Mike defies

mutilation, flashes Lloyd an unweighted neck hole


Pam Haas is a senior English major and philosophy minor at SUNY Geneseo. Her hobbies include exploring, procrastinating, performing slam poetry, and not thinking about graduating. She also loves to sleep in and fight the patriarchy, but usually not on the same day.