As The Black Crow Flies

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. -Thoreau

raining torrents of tears

unchaste, fallen years

headstones stand to preach the sky

bagpipes scratch the wind and wonder why

drums punctuating at attention

fiddle's back and forth strumming too indecisive to even mention

people reach for guns and butter

bread and roses

truth and lies

someone or something always dies

yesterday bends over and cries

tomorrow fashions yet another disguise

as sure as the black crow flies

Author's Note

"I once found a kernel of corn in the middle of a deep wood by Walden, tucked in behind a lichen on a pine, about as high as my head, either by a crow or a squirrel. It was a mile at least from any corn-field." - Thoreau

Reviews

[Dave Brown]

your poem is too deep for my simple mind to appreciate, but your mention of crows brings to mind a nest that has been established in a streetlamp, in a busy shopping area, from which pedestrians are being continually bombarded by overly protective parents.
kind of funny unless it is your unprotected bald head that is being perforated

[Pete]

lol. well they have to live somewhere and raise their family as do we but man keeps encroaching on their habitat. that's why i always wear a hat ... :)

[carl]

I like the fact that you included the consequential and inconsequential in your reasons for conflict. One of my favorite poems is The Butter Battle which I understand is not really about butter, but people can find anything about which to disagree, complain, or fight. Really like the structure and flow of your work. favorite line "headstones stand to preach the sky"

[Pete]

spot on observations carl, appreciated. so true about people finding anything to justify conflict.
as my muse thoreau wrote, “Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.”