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| January 17, 2007 Red Alert by Soren Wuerth Chicken in the Sea
“Imagining a chicken is another perfect memory.”
— 7th grader’s arranging of poetry magnets on a white board.
“Fight or investigate puppets.”
— Ibid.
The tsunami would get the chicken across the road, first. Let me explain. Snow fell in a milky flurry last Friday night. When we rounded the corner to the pier downtown we spotted a dancing chicken under a halo of streetlights. Our friend Brad managed to launch a few snowballs in its direction, but his aim fell short and the chicken danced on. We entered Annabelle’s Restaurant … almost closing, take any table you want. On the televisions above us, warnings of a tsunami streamed across the lower half of the picture. Brad said at least eight people had alerted him that an earthquake off Japan was sending a tidal wave toward the Pacific Coast. Were we in for the big one? I went outside and gazed into the soft gray night toward the ocean. In the blowing snow, I could just make out the chicken at the far end of the street, still waving and twirling beneath a lamp pole. A woman inside the alcove of a bar talked on her cell phone. “I’m just a bit worried, that’s all,” she slurred into her phone. Then she walked back into the bar. A car honked and the chicken flapped its wings. Earlier in the day, a group had assembled to protest Operation “Surge” and I wondered if the costume was part of the rally. Since America brandished its middle finger at Bush last week (even troops listening to his speech “guffawed,” according to commentators), folks have been less afraid of street theater. A team of activists wearing orange jumpsuits with burlap bags covering their heads and manacled wrists has been protesting torture in prominent locations in D.C. Then again, this is Ketchikan, and the chicken could have been part of a counter demonstration. On rolled the tsunami. I became suddenly concerned when I saw, later, a dozen people rush out of a bar. I followed, looked quickly to the ocean, and was nearly hit by a snowball. Huddled in their war room, the Bush gang is hearing their own sounds of slushy apples—donk, donk—hitting the paneled glass of the White House. Ecuador’s New Leftist president, Rafael Correa, sends one home. Chavez, Ahmadinejad, and Ortega throw up their arms. Cheney’s stare leaves Fox News for a moment, wet glass on his recliner. We still worried about the tsunami. Someone said it would impact the coast at 11 p.m., but the hour came and left. Rounds were still poured at the taverns. And the chicken was probably too drunk to notice. Soren Wuerth is perhaps Alaska's best known community activist, and is the winner of the Alaska Press Club's 2006 'Best Columnist' award. He resides in an undisclosed location in rural Alaska and can be reached at soren@insurgent49.com. 'Red Alert' appears on insurgent49.com every Wednesday. |
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