I Was Watching the Crows

I was watching the crows call to each other,
how they bobbed on the swinging wires,
flirted their feathers,
ducked their heads,
and cawed;
four times did one
that I thought might be their leader,
over and over
as the rest flew in.

I heard their different voices, saw
how one plucked at his breast with his bill,
and wondered what it was like
to live in a murder.

The sun was once again coming up
in the intervening silence.


10/27/2008