Crows
7 April 2004

waking in a blank hotel
no paper, so I break my rules
and watch the TV news

faces of concern report
malfeasance at high levels,
fear and death and greed

while tiny text spools out across
the bottom of the screen
and falls into the air.

A fragment freezes in my frame:
"West Nile virus,
Crows at deadly risk . . . "

No screen now, just
black feathers falling
silently as snow

I don't think much of life
without you,
Crow.

Arrant eater of the Dead,
finder of the shiny things,
keeper of the law,

family corvus, Raven, Crow
immortal Druids all:
don't leave us here alone.

Fly up above us - fly! I say -
retreat into the mountains, Crow -
speak from those higher skies

or if you must to Summerland
then take my soul
you take my soul

you let me fly along.