Cobra Chickens by Ruth Panofsky

Poem title: Cobra Chickens Poet name: Ruth Panofsky Poem Begins: I know you’re not ready to hear this but I want to say I’m sorry I didn’t pay closer attention when you landed on my rooftop terrace you must have been bereft why else would two bold full-feathered geese loud-mouthed birds foul friends of such great flock land here inviting my gaze my company how unkind unheeding of me to ignore your feet webbed your beaks black I was too worried about the goose pooh you might leave behind thinking I would have to clamber over the fence a dangerous feat for a human to gather your shit and dispose of it for you know it would be unthinkable to leave it there on my rooftop in my sight a reprimand and reminder of the time I didn’t welcome you proud powerful geese into my life so please dear ones so long flown forgive me and believe me when I say I’m sorry End of poem. Credits: Copyright © Ruth Panofsky Ruth Panofsky is the author of three books of poetry: Lifeline (Guernica, 2001), which was awarded an Ontario Arts Council Writer’s Reserve Grant; Laike and Nahum: A Poem in Two Voices (Inanna, 2007), which won the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award; and Radiant Shards: Hoda’s North End Poems (Inanna, 2020), which won a Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Award. Her poems and essays have appeared in various journals, including Dalhousie Review, Descant, the Literary Review of Canada, and White Wall Review. Originally from Montreal, she now lives and writes in Toronto and teaches Canadian Literature at Ryerson University.