Crows, Five Months After 9.11, Reread One Month After 7.7. Poem by Linda Hepner

Crows, five months after 9.11

Bad press, that’s what we got, bad press,
Caught by our color, black we are, caught caught,
Betrayed by our feathers’ murky, inky gloss…
So black we are! Bad press! Bad press!
Those beady eyes and beaks of ruffled
Mockingbirds and tawdry jays,
With fickle mates and seasonal calls
Have no respect for us, their betters!
Claws, claws and jabbing beaks good only for
Small grain and grubs,
But we, we love for life, true love like doves,
We soar in flight like hawks like hawks,
We fly in packs like running wolves,
We sit for Pow wows like our Northern worshippers,
Yet stoned we are, and cursed and blamed;
Raucous they call us,
Omens, famine, death… Unfair! Unfair!
You clothed ones down below!
Look up, behold!
We mighty ones! Our pitchy hue
Encloses stout hearts,
Long memories, so when you come with beaks and sticks
We rise, majestic, noblesse oblige -
With cause, with cause.

5.2.02