Rooster
Rooster is the greediest business chicken of all chicken hawks in the
good ‘ol boy chicken network. Rooster has no need for more than a B movie portrayal of conscience, or for more than creating perceptions of intelligent thought. He’s willing to cheat and kill to grab the golden egg.
Some successful lessons he learned as a fledgling were that all is fair in war as long as the war is profitable…. the ends justify the means as long as one gets away with it. Rooster is about doing the right thing, as long as the right thing pads the right nest.
Rooster is a papier mache puppet modeled after a flesh puppet known as the decider puppet who is seen affectionately portrayed by Fox News every day, but to believe the decider puppet is really the decider is a dangerous misappropriation of moral funds, as he’s scripted by strings attached to the hands of evil Oz puppeteers, hidden in plain sight behind the curtains in a great big white house.
Rooster squawks on and on in a complex Napoleonic style, and Hawk, merely a pawn to Rooster’s puppeteer’s gambits, listens and follows orders. Hawk is loyal to the king at all costs. His job is to carry out the decider’s chess moves. The hawk is not to wonder why; just to do and/or die. And they do. They do over and over again guided by intelligence designed to misguide. Hawk is armed, shielded and then the fallen are healed with the hollow promise of Rooster’s efforts and all the modern equipment that profit margins allow.
Rooster joined the cast of characters of the Mortal Beasts & Deities in April 2006. Rooster debuted on Peace Day at Cornwall Consolidated School as the villain in Resolution Revolution, the Mortal Beasts & Deities’ metaphorical stage play about the lesson we hopefully learned as kids: if someone has something you want, you don’t just smack him to steal it for yourself… among other important lessons about compassion and acceptance and sharing. Denouement finds Rooster has learned some lessons when he’s overthrown and forgiven and invited to join in as a part of the flock, even though at curtain he remains comically inept.
Like many Mortal Beasts & Deities puppets, especially the birds, Rooster’s head is constructed of papier mache over a construction helmet. He has intense maniacal blue eyes, gloriously glossy golden feathers, ridiculous red suede waddles and comb, and a mighty movable beak that squawks, thanks to Geppetto’s state of the art mechanical engineering (plumbing strap, papier mache, used bailing wire, salvaged springs, teflon pivots and Velcro binders). Rooster wears a dark pinstripe Brooks Brother’s suit and starched white button down shirt, a red striped power tie and a pair of size 13w black wingtip shoes (what else would a successful business chicken wear?).
