For many years a crow has been spotted in the area.
Awash in bitter spite, it makes its way between lamp posts,
guard rails, garbage bins, rooftops...Once it was seen riding atop an ambulance.
Time peeks at it from the shadows (most days it lay in wait, invisible),
the crow shouts obscenities and spits. Keeps distance.
Seen the crow every day for the better part of two years.
Seems to be in trouble. Standing on two feet; hardly ever soars anymore if it ever did.
Joseph at Life's Last Luxury said "It's a good crow. It probably just lost its way."
I tend to agree. Something tragic must have befallen it.
It has a spirit. This I know. But the spirit is damp, waterlogged,
weighed down like a clump of soil after Earth's thaw in spring.
One sunny day three weeks into July I spotted the glint of a metal pendant
on the corner of 68 and 105. Saw the crow swoop and grab it.
Joseph's daughter Beth (Best damn bartender in town)
said the crow brought the pendant to her.
Came in like a missile from the downtown rooftops and dropped it at her feet.
Said it had and almost human look, sorrow or maybe gratitude in its eye.
Beth thanked the crow. She said it tipped its head as if to say "goodbye".
Me I never got a gift from it. Always sensed a knowing from it though.
Always thought it might see me as a friend or something, I don't know.
Seen the crow every day for the better part of two years.
Until today, that is. It flew somewhere.
Saw it soaring somewhere far away. Wings looked aflame on the horizon.
Don't wonder where it went, though.
To me, it doesn't matter. Got my own eggs hatching. I’ll think of it now and again though. ‘Specially on rainy nights when the roads shine like Beth’s silver pendant. “Hope that crow found peace wherever it went”, I’ll say.
Yes indeed. That’s what I’ll say.
