Wood Rooster

Lunar New Year fell on Feb 8. Anyone born before that date belongs to the previous year (Monkey).

Roosters are tuned to whether a thing is right. A button done up wrong or numbers that do not add up, and they will say so before they can stop themselves. They work from lists, close the loop, arrive when they said they would, and start to itch if you are ten minutes late. They come across as particular, clear, a little sharp. Half of that sharpness points inward: they are more afraid of being wrong than anyone, so they audit the room first. They would rather be the one who checked than the one who assumed.

The day pulls itself in, a pomegranate splits along one seam, and the seeds inside are evenly red, each one distinct. Such people insist on distinctions: whose job, whose words, who does which step. Vagueness irritates them; a half-promise gets split in two and answered separately. They run cool and avoid crowds, yet the small patch handed to them is always clean. Their red is not scattered outward; it stays inside the skin, showing only when opened.