text © Raj Arumugam, Nov 2007

this morning at five, with a dawn of disinterested clouds hanging low

touching the roof of my sedan

turning right into the road that boasts of a shopping centre on its right and

a privileged motel on its left and there

on that road just before the highway I saw the nefarious crows:

scavengers, idlers,

accursed and holders of the devil;

harbingers of disasters and bad luck,

ominous, ubiquitous

pictures of ugliness and shapers of evil mystery;

peckers and eaters of bellies and eyes and brains;

cacophonous bullies of gentle birds; scary in the dark and sitting

 on the serpentine branches above your heads

these and more and more epithets too these birds carrying

carrying the burden of infamy and human ignorance and bias and prejudices;

but they too are part of the cycle of nature and the food chain and

as evil and as good and as beautiful and as ugly as you and I

or as any creature that may inhabit verdant lands or the deserts or the plains

I saw them this morning; the nefarious crows are back….

came winter and all the days of darkness and moodiness

and meditations and cogitations and melancholic solitude and deserted gardens

and cracked trees and bird-less landscapes and brown grass and bald trees

and unpleasant shrubs

and dark, dark thoughts of murder and suicide and convoluted imaginations

and fascinations and cogitations

and then the sun sings through its agents its songs of spring to who may

listen if any survived, and as if he cared  

and if any had still hope; and yet the crows that had disappeared did not come and

then this morning they show me their evil form, in a vision of a gang waiting at

the turn of the road that goes in to the highway, there at five in the morning

the nefarious crows return

between the shopping centre and the motel on the left

and on the road some damned

drunk had left bread crumbs and mashed Macdonald’s and pies and puke

and I coming in on the green wave turn to the right and first my Pithukuli Murugadas

drowned by the caws of crows, a million and insistent and cantankerous and murderous

these crows above circling, circling

and fighting over carrion and offal and what decent people would not eat

and scooping down to the tire-squashed offal on the road and they take their time

they savor rubbish, they delight in polluted food

before my murderous wheels- should I stop? – or do they deserve to die for this

sacrilegious act? for breaking of holy food code and laws

and they are still descending, sitting on the road,

pecking pecking, pecking;

dispassionate about their lives,  and not heeding the sedan that could flatten

the squashed bread and processed meat and ravenous crows

raw, raw and guts and intestines

and black feathers sticking out of installation art –

should I stop? –

and yet disinterested  in the master of the universe who’s driving a sedan…

Hey Crows - I am of the species that wields the power on these roads;

my race legislates and we own these roads.

Hey Crows – I am that which can stick labels on you –

and yet disinterested

just pecking

pecking and

pecking –  like furiously mating beasts – eating as intensely as horses mating -

and then at the very last minute, in a split second –

they are off with the precision of military pilots and their machines 

But how do you know? How do you know?

If you’d been a possum you would have been toast;

 if it were a kangaroo it would have

left a dent on my bonnet and sent a shock down my spine –

but you evil overfed scavenger crows,

pecking , pecking, pecking

eating with a ferocity like one seeking release in severe constipation  

you not fearful but inspiring fear-

How do you know?

like receding waves those crows withdrew

and back descended on the carcass of food they’ll peck and eat to its atom…

but they too are part of the cycle of nature and the food chain and

as evil and as good and as beautiful and as ugly as you and I

or as any creature that may inhabit verdant lands or the deserts or the plains

and so they are back; these nefarious crows…

spring is here, advancing and summer,

hot, hot, sizzling and hot, summer will come with a vengeance…

See, the nefarious crows are here to keep our evil minds company…

 the nefarious crows are back