"spirit raven" by Patricia Carroll
The Calves Not Chosen
The mind goes caw, caw, caw, caw,
dark and fast. The orphan heart
cries out, “Save me. Purchase me
as the sun makes the fruit ripe.
I am one with them and cannot
feed on winter dawns.”
The black birds
are wrangling in the fields
and have no kindness, all sinew
and stick bones.
Both male and female.
Their eyes are careless
of cold and rain,
of both day and night.
They love nothing
and are murderous with each other.
All things of the world are bowing
or being taken away.
Only a few calves will be chosen,
the rest sold for meat.
The sound of the wind grows bigger
than the tree it’s in, lessens only
to increase. Haw, haw the crows call,
awake or asleep, in white, in black.
Linda Gregg
Posted over on The Poetry Foundation
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