Monday, November 22, 2004

RAVEN’S SEASON OF DISCONTENT

An empty blue scrim
of sky loops over Spokane.
Raven slices it
with his wing, scouting for clouds.
Frost falling on car windshields.

An early squirrel
darts up and down the oak’s bark,
runs to store his prize.
Raven dives, snatching the nut,
drops it in a garbage can.

Stalking a Greyhound
to Moses Lake, Raven laughs
at the three freezing
Panamanians in shorts
boarding the bus with backpacks.

At the Ellensburg
Subway, Raven turns up his
beak at the dumpster.
An old chinese man chasing
him away from his steamed bun.

In the abandoned
picnic ground near Lake Kachess,
Raven smells snow just
around the corner, and heads
over the pass to North Bend.

From Mount Si into
Seattle he beats his wings
through a storm, wishing
Ravens were migratory
and he had kept the acorn.