“Social Dinosaurs” by David Kopaska-Merkel

they watch us

to you or me, a crow

is a crow, but they know where you live

they know all

about you, and your trash

and how you treat your corvid neighbors

in quiet

nest speech they talk of love

but public caws are all about you

and your cat

they see you feeding her

you are on the list and all crows know

in Jonesville

and over to Waycross

in Willow Valley you're known on sight

your lights went

out in a blaze of sparks

shorted by feathered suicide squad

screwdriver

near the opened fuse box

crow ninjas had to pick toolbox lock

nestlings watch

they remember naughty

and nice, they keep my shrubs beetle free

caw!!

David Kopaska-Merkel, founding member of the International Vampire Society, has written myriads of poems and stories since the '70s. He won the Rhysling award (Science Fiction Poetry Association) for best long poem in 2006 for a collaboration with Kendall Evans. His latest book, Footprints in Stone

, co-authored with Ron Buta, describes a fabulous trace-fossil site in Alabama.

Published in Kaleidotrope, Summer 2016 | www.kaleidotrope.net