The Raven

The trickster raven

Black and gray

Off set against the white snow

It crosses my path once again

And flies directly overhead

I here it calling plaintively

In the snowy silence

From the tall alpha tree

There does not seem to be another soul

For some distance around

He talks in guttural sounds

That eerily penetrate the still forest

A few clumps of snow fall from the branches above

From whence there is a sudden movement

From its flight

It swoops down low overhead

Harbinger of some future fate

As he leads me down the trail

I know not what its interests are

Nor its sadness

I only feel a shiver

Of the cold

Running down my spine

As hurriedly I turn

And trudge ahead

The Great Wall Revisited

Trails in the Snow

1991-1993