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Crows in the City in Winter
by Reva Griffith
The crows are in town,
In raucous voice
They tout their presence.
"Caw, caw, caw!" they scream
Above the noise of the city.
With fierce cries, they glide
Overhead, dipping down
To scavenge wastes from humans below.
I recall the crows of a quieter time,
From the woods and fields
Their urgent, yet muted, cries mingled with voices
Of less noisy birds.
Then, they didn't seem to swoop and holler
With such dogged insistence.
And I recall Jake,
The neighbor's pet crow,
Who confined himself to less noisy endeavors.
I see him follow Ike and Shiva, dog friends,
As they contrive to trap a rabbit in a culvert.
And I see him sitting on my clothes line
Peering at me with black eyes of challenge,
As he boldly snatches clothes pins
From the laundry on the line.
Have crows evolved with the humans
They hover above?
Now, they spend their winters in cities
Where we are.
Are they more strident, less personal,
As they soar up there above us?
Maybe so...
But hearing them cry in the wind above the city
Is a comforting sound.
—Reva Griffith
December, 1998
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