crow

i must get this walnut open (2012)

1.

I must
get this
walnut
open

Brothers
must not
eat my
treasure

I must
fly to
the wire
and drop

Three times
I try
At last
it cracks

The taste
is sweet
The work
is hard

The work
is sweet
The nut
is hard


2.

You can’t see me.
I eat light.

You can only see
my outline, a jagged mouth
swallowing your landscape.

I am as glossy smooth
as a scar, still imprinted on your skin
long after the wound is forgotten.

If stars
are pinpricks in the
black sheet revealing
the heavenly light beyond,
I am the opposite.

You ignore me
you prefer robins.
Forget morning.
It may never come.
You despise me
you want music and sympathy.
I can give you neither.

Tell me:
What would you say
if your only song were a scream?


.

Image by author; Santa Fe, NM.