These birds are wild turkeys that I spotted at a local Condominium Complex near a wooded area in St. Paul, Minnesota. Turkeys are more common recently, as they were only rarely seen when I was younger. The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the diverse Galliformes species. Although native to North America, the turkey probably got its name from the domesticated variety being imported to Britain in ships coming from the Levant (today's country of Turkey) via Spain. The British at the time therefore associated the wild turkey with the country and the name prevailed. Adult males, called Toms or Gobblers, have a large, featherless, reddish head, red throat, and red wattles on the throat and neck. Their heads change colors with their moods. When a male turkey is excited, its head turns blue or white when it is most excited; when ready to fight, it turns red. The male turkey is always larger than the female. Source Wikipedia.

This poem is a Duo-rhyme.
The name is taken as a play on Mono-rhyme Poems, as this one contains only two rhymes (actually two mono-rhymes, with one sandwhiched) in the required format. The Duo-rhyme, a poetic form created by Mary L. Ports, is a 10 or 12-line poem, with the first two and last two lines having the same rhyme scheme, and the center of the poem (lines #3 through #8 or #10) having their own separate mono-rhyme scheme. The indentation is also part of the format.

Meter: 8 beats per line, written in iambic tetrameter (4 linear feet of iambic) Rhyme Scheme: 10-line: a,a,b,b,b,b,b,b,a,a and 12-line: a,a,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,a,a. For this poem, I chose the the 10 line format.

This photograph was taken by the author himself on April 3, 2012.

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