"
Crow Poem"by
Peggy Hong
M
y small city lotis crowded with crows, caw
cawing loudly enough
to wake the baby.
Perhaps they are here
to prey on me, peck
on my windows. Perhaps
they will take me apart
without putting me back
together. No, look.
They are circling through the halo
of my blue bungalow. They land
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|
on stick legs to feast greedily on the eggshells
littering my lawn. They try to feed them back to me,
but I am in the bathroom, standing in my own shadow,
retching. Caw caw to the baby crow
in the neighbor's tree. Caw caw to the Seven Directions.
Caw caw to me at age five, surrounded by crows.
I cry for my mama, not seeing her there before me, herself a crow. |
From The Sister Who Swallows the Ocean (1997)
Used with permission of the author.