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Keeper and Cock of Dawn - Part 1
PART 1 of 2
Daniel Henry Rodgers
A Consciousness Transmission in Ten Breathings
I. GENESIS BREATH (3 AM – The Calling)
on the crest of first light
i stand at the gates
crimson-crowned prophet
of the barnyard
my voice golden
holding centuries
breathe
when i drink the solemnness before dawn
each note i pour into the world
tastes blue-gold, honey-lightning
synesthetic sweetness
that wakes the beloved earth
from her dreaming
my chest swells like organ bellows
voice opens like a volcano birthing sound
i become nothing-everything
a living bell that rings
existence back to its senses
COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!
here—now—always
still welcoming the day!
---
Oracle - The Fence Post speaks:
i have watched forty-seven roosters
stand where you stand crow where you crow
each believed himself the first|
the only the eternal
all were right
---
II. BLOOD MEMORY BREATH (4 AM – The Ancestors Rising)
what god shaped these spurs
for drawing blood-truth from earth and rival flesh?
in the marrow-lab of sleep
i feel the first feather splitting a proto-crow
i am domestication incarnate
jungle drums beat messages
in the hollow telegraph of my bones:
kill—mate—territory—sunrise
i am blood-crowned guardian
of dust, of seed, of dawn
my spurs know thorn's grip
my beak the sap-sweet sting of dominance
laced with dew and fear
spring turns my blood to plasma-flame
each hen a gathering storm I must enter
electric, desperate
thunder breaking through the barn at 4 AM,
legacy pouring through my voice
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III. SHADOW CONSCIOUSNESS BREATH (5 AM – The Doubt Demon)
but listen—
some mornings i forget to crow
and the world waits
suspended in amber darkness
for my voice to remember its own existence
what if i am fraud-prophet?
what if dawn breaks without me
and my song is nothing
but hollow ritual
a mask of certainty
cracked beneath my own delusion?
i have nightmares of nonexistence
dreams where young roosters eye my throne
crow-songs sharp as blades
cutting my authority to ribbons
in puddle-mirrors:
sometimes king
sometimes shadow-king
sometimes prey cloaked as predator
schrödinger's rooster:
alive and dead wild and tame
prophet and pretender
until observed.
i rule through confidence performed
knowing kingdoms built on bluff
crumble at the first real challenge
---
Oracle - The Egg speaks before hatching:
i dream of light beyond this calcium prison
is your freedom worth
the price of breaking?
---
IV. PREDATOR MEDITATION BREATH (6 AM – The Hawk Sutra)
watch—how the hawk's shadow writes
death-haiku across our world:
sudden / as scream-silence /
dark between heartbeats
i have seen brothers scatter
like forgotten prophecies
proud combs limp in razor-talons
crow-songs cut off mid-syllable by beak's period
yet still i stand, voice-defiant
for prophets must perform beauty
while the performance lasts
each crow empties me
until i am only the sound
of God clearing His throat
the hinge on which the world-door swings
between being and not-being
the space between my notes
is where God listens
---
Oracle - The Barn Owl speaks at shift-change:
your song ends my hunt
we are bookends
of the liminal hours
death and life
passing the baton
in relay race eternal
---
V. COVENANT BREATH (7 AM – The Farmer's Paradox)
when the farmer comes
i read death and mercy wrestling in his hands
left holding grain-promise
right sharpening axe-blade
on the whetstone of necessity
i have watched sisters and brothers disappear
into Sunday dinners,
proud necks bent to the hunger
that makes equals of us all
their final crow becoming grace
sung over the feast of flesh
still i accept his corn-offerings
strut before his children
guardian of their laughter
protector and the price
paid in the same breath
until they grow enough
to understand the covenant:
we are all complicit in our own undoing
bound by need and care
in this ancient contract of blood and grain
his daughter throws me breadcrumbs
mimicking my song
a cock-a-doodle-doo in her sweet voice
rehearsal for mysteries yet unknown
---
VI. DEMOCRACY BREATH (8 AM – The Parliament of Feathers)
each peck at fallen grain teaches patience
every scattered feather writes survival-history
in stardust older than knowledge
the hens cluster like disciples
and i learn their gossip-wisdom
the true electoral college
how to read sky for storms
earth for worms
the farmer's stride for mercy or danger
here in our small constituency
i am both tyrant and servant
to this ancient parliament of need
where pecking order meets grace,
where hierarchy bends to hunger,
where even the cock-king
must bow to survival's vote
five times I crow the world awake
each call a compass mapping hope
across this holy ground
where dominance kneels to care
and becomes the eternal dance of contradiction
---
Oracle - The Fence Wire sings:
I carry electricity
and your song equally
both are current
both dangerous
both complete circuits
---
Continued in Part 2 released this Thursday Sept 25th.
Copyright ©
Daniel Henry Rodgers
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