Pause For Poetry:
Michael Hawkes /50

The Night of Crows

A poem by Michael Hawkes

A massive murder, a massacre of crows
Invaded our back lane last night.

Their panicked cries announced to all
That something somewhere wasn’t right.

Their frantic agitation filled my sleepy head with fright
So I rose to watch the bedlam, an un-precedented sight…

Exclamation marks and colons
Like punctuations in the snow,
But I couldn’t read the message,
Couldn’t get into the flow
Of the many meanings hidden,
In their frantic form of talking
And their flitting to and fro’.

Finally, as though one mind
They colonized an ancient elm.

As black foliage they filled its space
And weighed its branches down,

And every bird… facing eastward
In dead silence, bore an omen
And it seemed all wore a frown.

6/3/22 –  Hawkes

Feature image: Andrew Burlone

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