The Warning by Michael Keshigian

He saw the of crows, hundreds of crows,

rising from across the countryside,

traversing above the massive lake

against a brilliant, blue sky

sheeted with sun’s yellow streaks,

distracting the clouds with unnerving cries,

blotting the light with ebony feathers.

Sitting dockside upon splintered planks

of a rented lakeside cottage,

he thought of invasive birds in movie plots

as he watched the crows descend

upon the neighbors house,

at once, blanketing trees, the manicured lawn,

and in their garden, upon the corn stalks

and designed vegetation,

becoming random punctuation marks,

various collections of periods,

commas, colons, and such

errantly dropped across the blossoming page

in the sudden stark whiteness of the day,

looming scavengers, emerging from the sky

to invade the calm, distinct summer mood.

And it was because of their penchant for darkness

that he retreated indoors

when a single, black crow,

an alpha avian, it seemed,

wandered into his yard

and curdled an ungodly caw

that drifted through the metallic sunlight,

severing the bird from those others

that inexplicably ravaged the neighbors effects

in the subtle, decaying aura of daylight.

Michael Keshigian’s thirteenth poetry collection, The Garden Of Summer was released April, 2019 by Flutter Press. He has been widely published in numerous national and international journals, recently including Red River Review, Sierra Nevada Review, Oyez Review, Bluepepper, Muddy River Review, Smoky Quartz and has appeared as feature writer in over twenty publications with 7 Pushcart Prize and 2 Best Of The Net nominations. (michaelkeshigian.com)