From a foot away she regarded me
Cocking her head side to side
Beady black eyeball facing me at all times
Shifting her weight from leg to leg
Closer I came and still she remained
Whether I moved forward or back the crow did not fly
I put down my groceries on the sidewalk
Covered in the shadows of old oak trees
To talk with this befuddling bird
One night I dreamed my mother had passed
I was alone and cold
With her had gone all the warmth of the world
Primal remembrance of the sauna in the womb
Perhaps this is why women carry children
To the welcoming light of the earth
The rounded swell at the end of the curve
Where the stem meets the branch
Forever until the tree blooms in color
A season and direction for a leaf
Compelling forces of the fall
Gravity and love
They say space and time explode outward from a point
As territory grows the clock hand circles
Creating is said to take time
This center point lacking both size and time
Is this where the fall ends and begins
Where I and the crow wait?
© 2008 Audri Phillips
2 comments:
Bodacious. Provokes the 2nd time this weekend I've felt like a peach.
I hate the crows
They are the bullies of the skies.
When I was growing up here 50 years ago
There were no crows.
They've arrived since,
They've beaten and bullied the smaller birds
driven them out, taken their food
downed out their pretty songs with ear splitting squawks.
They move like gangs of robbers through the trees ignoring the property lines and fences below.
They scream at each other relentlessly,
Crowing about this, crowing about that.
until I wonder what it's all about.
Are they shouting orders at each other or making demands or arguing or bragging about something,
A family dispute?
Gang style macho challenges among black birds?
It's a black bird's bravado and it's rattling my ears, burning my brain
and my arteries to harden.
When I'm just seeking peace in my garden,
I looked into obtaining a small air rifle but learned they're illegal in my neighbourhood.
I must coexist with the crows,
even though I got here first.
So I hate the crows.
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