Featured Poet: Ivy Page, Warren
 Ivy Page is a poet whose poetry has been described by Ross Gay as, "passionate, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious poems, (which) always have a deep and generous intelligence." She lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire with her husband and two daughters. Her work has appeared in The Houston Literary Review, Boston Literary Magazine, New Plains Review, Cantarville, Snow Monkey, Oak Bend Review, The November 3rd Club, Night Train, The Smoking Poet, Underground Voices, and forthcoming in Foundling Review. Her first book review appears in New Southerner. She is also the editor and founder of Organs of Vision and Speech Magazine.
“Roosters” is a complex narrative poem that is not only about roosters, but the way in which a young girl comes to understand the way relationships work. The beginning of the poem starts quietly giving the setting. In the second stanza we have the simplicity of the action of butchering chickens on the farm tangled with the subtle undertones of the first experience with a man, “The hatchet went through the neck/ of the first smooth and easy.” Not only does this describe the killing of a rooster, but also the emotional feelings of the first love lost. This piece was inspired by my childhood experience on a farm, and the complex nature of male/female relationships. It was written during my senior year at New England College’s MFA program.
Roosters
We had four
shipped to us in a bunch
from the hatchery. At eight
years old on a farm
it happens...
The hatchet went through the neck
of the first smooth and easy,
blood spurted out
the body flew to the top
of my mother’s car
parked half way across the yard.
It flopped and sputtered then suddenly…death
on the cream colored roof.
A bright red gush running down
the windshield.
You can only have one rooster.
previously published in The Houston Literary review in September 2009.
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