The Disciples of Winter
        for Elizabeth Behrens

Grace must wander even with the lonely sight of crows,
the purple and the purple black, each one spotted
like a snowflake, fingerprint.Birds sing of other worlds
that are not grown here but happen somewhere out there
in the land of blow away the dead and make a wish
we give to children.They have learned to stretch their necks
out, offer up their throats on blue platters of the sky, do not seek
pity, feel shame.Their feathers fallen give us leave to ponder.
Consider the city.It mimics the crow, black throat
caught at the chords sings out a promise of day.
Evening, and morning, and at noon, transparent
and bound to truth, the knowing of winter is clean,
like a scar storied and sure of where it's been.

Copyright © 2009 Stephanie McKenzie All rights reserved
from Grace Must Wander
Salmon Poetry
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission