Intersection
       

A boat-tailed grackle counts the passing cars
from the traffic light it perches on.
The ferryman of Fairmont Avenue,
its eyes are scars.
                            Dark's impoverished son,
it covets coins—the tolls that it is due—
glinting on dashes, lodged in seats. Its head
is cocked. The light is yellow. Its wings, spread.

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Copyright © 2017 Michael Shewmaker All rights reserved
from Penumbra
Ohio University Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission