Cock Fight

Cock Fight I saw them from a distance, the group of men and older boys, huddled around two fighting cocks, black-feathered, standing, resting their necks pressed against one another, like sated lovers not wanting yet to speak the group, some of them, chuckled in happy expectation then drew breath : the cocks fell upon themselves , dervishes on fire, tearing at feather,beak and skin then a a mafia-faced man half my aged stared, until I signaled to him “just looking!” which he seemed to accept: after a short while I left the poultry “ablaze”, still their feathered- hubris unfazed, with their cackles and gaggles and cock-a-doodle-do’s, and a memory of the mafia and gambling men and boys