March 14, 2025: Janeen Pergrin Rastall, "When I Return as a Crow"
When I Return as a Crow by: Janeen Pergrin Rastall For Rick When I return as a crow, albumin will cling as I pip my shell. Head first, I will thrust, damp and fierce into the nest. I will hop down branches, and sideways eye caterpillars, wintergreen, and you. Day after day, I will watch you, delight in your grin, your bear-like snatch at berries as you stride the paths. I will call to you, my voice the rattle of gravel in a can. Wanting to woo you, I will strut and flap. Roadkill and glints of fast-food litter will not tempt me. I will guard your blueberries, molt, grow bald beneath my beak. When winds from Nunavut rush south, I will not fly away. I will perch in the pine east of your window, quell my raucous call, wait the next turn of the wheel, another chance to behold you. Janeen Pergrin Rastall , a retired system analyst lives in Gordon, MI with Richard Rastall, the editor, and publisher of Superior Voyage . She likes to hike, travel, and occasionally write poetry. She...