19th ave octet

19th ave octet

crow on the wire tilts its head up in thin rain;
in the background the weeping birch limbs droop bare—

wires criss-cross, neutral & live overhead;
to the east overcast spreads its gray-white silk,

veiling all things not crow nor wire nor tree limb;
cold drop after cold drop striking eyeglasses

gazing skyward—the crow’s not ready to fly;
this balance this late afternoon: joy & tears


Jack Hayes
© 2016


10/29/16



Note: It's been my practice for 8 years (with one exception) never to use an illustration or photograph to accompany one of my own poems. I'm going to change that from time to time over the foreseeable future. Of course this image was already featured as a photo of the week back when the poem was actually written. The blog is quite far behind the actual writing schedule, which has been a bit intense! As a result, I'm also adding composition dates. The poems are not all appearing in the order they were composed.