After Mr. Hughes and Mr. Stevens
1.
Blacktop carrion delights
on soft August asphalt.
Death: sour, warm
& delicious.
2.
One eyed head cock,
slyly studying
the oblivious living
crossing in traffic.
3.
The savor of last terrors:
an iris frozen wide until
snapped shut in a beak.
4.
Couching frozen in
the middle of the road,
scythe backed,
watching
a car approach:
supplicant & hungry
5.
Laughing in the branches
over the murmuring radios,
black eyes flashing
red blue red,
measuring
the spreading blood.
6.
Tossing back
wrestled morsels
like blood cocktails,
beaks lifted
to the sky
in delight.
7.
The park is thick
with pigeons
and sparrows.
No one notices
the crows
crowning
the stone soldier.
8.
A dozen odd crows
watch the crowd
gathered to marvel
at the hawks
soaring over downtown.
9.
A lost crow
puzzles hungrily
in the cemetery,
death smell death smell
everywhere
& not a bit to peck.
10.
Are there no crows
out at night?
Do they simply
vanish into the black
& wait for the cats
to set the table?
11.
No sex fetish feathers,
brightly colored
& yet
they are
everywhere.
12.
Who made them black
lays out their feast &
gave their laughing caw.
13.
Black sinner that I am,
lay me out
naked as I came.
Let them feed
& I’ll fly away
laughing.