August 8, 2009

Lydia Suarez


The Wisdom of Birds


Crows strut along a track
working off an evening meal
of worms and garter snakes
let me by with a caw,
one lap for disappointing my parents,
another for being happy at the misfortune of others.
Girls in middle school,
with angled footsteps
slide toward the oval knoll
pull up black woolen socks
part ponytails like rivers
and wait.
A man too decrepit to be alive
with slack skin, no shirt and ear buds,
passes me
scares the crows who understand
the devil knows more because he is old
than because he is the devil.

CP

Lydia Suarez has had poems and stories published in Prism Review, Shine, Quality Fiction, All Things Girl, Tuesday Shorts, 971 Menu, among others. Her memoir, Pale Northern Legs, won the Dead of Winter Non-Fiction Contest.

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