CROWS

              2020

It was a season of crows.

First a few dark
Wrinkles in the sky
Sometimes merely one
Tiny blot against the blue.

On our green fields
We discovered them
Strutting and bouncing
Mysterious and watchful.

Carrion-feeders, their
Eyes bright black, their
Bills sturdy wedges
Better to pry their prey.

We should have known:
Rolling back the years
We might have recognized
Our role as their intended.

We were first amused:
We would rush them
Mock their irritated flight
While they landed further in.

Imperceptibly,
Their population grew
An abundance of feathers
A gathering of caws.

First in our fields
And hidden in our trees
Then scarring our skies
Until their black dominated.

They unfolded in waves
Sinuous shades
Storms of savage wings
Incessant raucous noise.

Looking back, this 2020 year
Our perfect vision year
We should have seen and known
And knowing, repossessed our world.

The truths we chose to keep
Obscured our sight
Like well-beaten dogs, our
Tails still wagged for hate.

We widened our divisions
Kept our guns and grudges;
Pressing back-to-back we faced
Our confidential crows.

We could not see for noise:
Sightless horses, we
Planted stubborn hooves
Awaiting some salvation.

We could have stopped them.

Minds yet our own, we
Might have cleaned our ears
Lubricated our eyes
Shattered their brittle iron.

They were but crows.

Now, everywhere
Their squabbles rend silence
Wings touch wings in flight
And no light penetrates.

Our cataracted vision
Loses ground for figure:
Black erases blue
Ebony tramples green.

Alone in darkened rooms
We sift opioided terrors,
Taut despairs and fears
Rattling our gilded cages.

Our world’s colors
Irrecoverable, we
Moan sore like doves
Lamenting our stolen vision.

That’s false, we know:

We used their voices
Let their eyes be ours
Their smudged sight substituting
While we chased distractions.

Masters now, these smokelings
Scratch and rasp and laugh,
Their caverned ancient darkness
All that’s left to us.

This, our 2020 year
This, our visionary year
This, the year we sold
Our children to the crows.