Anna Cates
Crows, a Warning
They have the intelligence of a seven-year-old. Despite their small brain, compact neurons provide them special problem-solving skills.
But it moves beyond that where mysticism is involved . . .
Hush now, my soul! Nobody needs to know; they play a role in witchcraft, pluck out and eat, repeatedly, a witch's third eye while it's
continually reborn, re-formed from twilight stardust and subterfuge . . .
Forgive them. Twisted from natural into strange, they absorb with light every color. They are midnight . . .
Nobody makes merry beneath their brooding wings. Beware lest they beset you to tarry in some loathsome woods.
smoky spell
picking the lock—
rustling feathers
Bio
Anna Cates is a graduate of Indiana State University (M.A. English and Ph.D. Curriculum & Instruction/English), and National University (M.F.A. Creative Writing). She teaches online college writing and literature and graduate education. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Dwarf Stars, Elgin, and Rhysling awards. Her books include: The Meaning of Life (Cyberwit Press), The Frog King (Cyberwit Press), The Darkroom (Prolific Press), The Golem & the Nazi (Red Moon Press), The Journey (Wipf & Stock), Love in the Time of Covid (Wipf & Stock), and The Poison Tree: A Peace Play (Wipf & Stock). She resides in Wilmington, Ohio, with her beautiful kitties, Freddie and Fifi.