Andrea Cohen, American poet, born 1961. Awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Glimmer Train’s Short Fiction Award, and several fellowships at MacDowell. She taught at The University of Iowa, Emerson College, UMASS-Boston, Boston University, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and Merrimack College, where she was the founding director of the Writers’ House. She directs the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge, MA, and will be teaching at Boston University in the spring of 2025.
FABLE
Andrea Cohen
I’m tired of meaning, says the tortoise
to the hare, who agrees. The lions
and crows don’t disagree, and the snake
chimes in: It would be better if we didn’t
have to moonlight as morality lessons.
Exactly, says the chicken. I’d like to let
loose once in a while, I’d like to
stretch my wings, she says. Yes,
says the fox. You should get out
of your pen more, says the fox. You
should let me help, says the fox,
opening the latch to the evening.
It was a fine evening and a fine
conclusion they were coming to,
thought the fox, helping
the chicken out of her feathers.