When Rooster Refused to Crow

For so very long, he would greet the dawn
With his boisterous bellow to the sky.
Many the farm folk awoke with a yawn
And would set to chores that ever were nigh.

But new neighbors, who did not rise with the sun,
Converted farms with their housing expansions.
Late nights they prefer and mornings they shun,
As they sleep late in condos and mansions.

The new folks thought to make it their mission
To have no alarms ere seven A.M.
Some said, "'Tis against long held traditions,"
But the newcomers soon overruled them.

And so it was the law, none could call out
From midnight until seven each morning.
The rooster was told to stifle his shout
And let the sun appear without warning.

"If I cannot do as my nature calls,"
Said the Rooster in his bold defiance,
"Then not all day, nor after night falls,
Shall I utter a sound in compliance."

With that, Rooster went silent as a stone,
In his pledged vow to his higher power.
And every fowl and beast on its own
Grew quiet too beneath Rooster's glower.

But the newfangled clocks buzzed, beeped, and rang
In the modern homes of those late risers.
They woke heedless to their caused sturm und drang,
Staring through their rosy, one-way visors.

The farmers too bought new clocks to wake them
So they may still do their so early work.
They secretly set theirs for five A.M.
With volume low, their neighbors to not irk.

And the silent Rooster stands at his post
To set the example for all to see.
At least until he becomes Sunday's roast,
The price, it seems, to fight for liberty.