Black Crows
by denny bastian 2012

Black crows
at fading light
dipping and diving
at each other like steel balls
in an arcade game
stopping to rest in a tree
like a brief incursion into
the prized centre hole
where the game pays out.

Black crows
in the street lamp darkness
curiously quiet on alder branch and
atop the fast food promontories
by the small waters of Still Creek.
Like the black fruit of Eden
forbidden to disrupt
without squawking irritation,
a noisy consequence.

Black crows
at morning daybreak;
first light arguments
over who gets the mall, and who
gets the dumpsters at the
University and who is left to 
salvage the garbage left by the
druggies, the hookers, and the
vomitus drunks on skid road.