Crow Community

When I walk outside at dawn in Oxford, there are crows.
Not a few, but an entire community..
They live where we live.
Once I counted 57 before they flew and changed trees.
The sound is a cacophony, a symphony warming up..
Conversations show personality and emotion.
Some caw slowly and then listen..I call them the Listeners.
Some caw like my aunts speak to each other at a family reunion,
with rapid staccato words and tones of complaint and laughter.
I call them the Gossips.
Their jet black color fills the stark bare gray trees of winter...
it is beautiful.
I have joined the conversation a few times..
Some are humored by my attempt to caw like they do.
One flew toward me, coming very close.
We made eye contact..
I think he was more than curious.
His single caw as he passed sounded friendly.
I calmly lifted my left hand and waved with two fingers.
"Peace" i said.

wkm

Painting by Bob Orsillo