the crows

the crows around my neighborhood are huge
not obese, but large in that purely muscular sense
and they're kinda scary with their broad beaks
like they can split your skull open if you looked at them the wrong way
or get cross with them for their obnoxious morning vocal stylings

the other day there were dozens of them on an electrical wire
(maybe it was a telephone wire)
but there they were, sitting side by side by side by side
their black forms creating menacing shadows on the street beneath them

and i thought of them as a group, a murder of crows
a dangerous collection of ravenous scavengers
with hunched shoulders covered in feathered capes
and it sent a chill down my spine

they were convening, congregating so conspicuously on the wire
what sinister plot were they devising?
who next to ridicule, assault, kill?
how many victims to fell and devour?

and that's when the brilliance of epiphany --
that blinding connection and revelation --
brought to light my narrow sight
it was all in my clouded mind
obscured by obstreperous thought
and poisoned with prejudiced presumption

how much more threatening these birds than a targeted population?
a wire is a stoop, is a street corner, is a crowded bus
and pulling in closer, retreating upon oneself, a trained reaction
something bred out of fear and otherness and ignorance

then a flood of abominal assumptions crashed through my brain
all of those crows, those dark-plumed birds
all of the admonishable associations fluttering about my head
making me sick with sense

and the crows followed me in random places
haunted me in public spaces
an upstart reminder to be more aware of misplaced danger

unconsciously i've kept the message to heart
stitched to my chest is a scribbled crow
above it penned this word: "heavenly"

and just tonight
i spoke with a friend who read that in shaman culture
crows were messengers to be respected and minded

well, i'm here to tell you,
"i'm listening."