Today I watched a crow with too much
\ntime on its hands steal feathers<\/p>\n
from a hawk’s golden haunches,
\njust for the hell of it, stalking<\/p>\n
suburban streets whose trees
\nsoak up aspirations from vision<\/p>\n
boards of college students, roots
\nnourished by dregs of unfinished<\/p>\n
dreams. The thick bark reminds me
\nof Dr. Phil’s hands, groping our<\/p>\n
subconscious like a smooth toll booth
\noperator, the back of his bald head<\/p>\n
shiny as a lit-up map where you can
\nfind every recorded act<\/p>\n
of human decency
\nand I don’t mean to brag<\/p>\n
but I once spent the day
\nwatching over a tuft of tilled earth<\/p>\n
where a turtle had laid her eggs,
\nright in the middle of a busy walkway.<\/p>\n
Maybe she was distracted or had a lot
\non her plate, but goddamnit,<\/p>\n
she got the job done, squeezing
\nout each leathery wet egg.<\/p>\n
After she scuttled off
\ninto the marsh behind a Wendy’s<\/p>\n
I stood watch over the fresh mound
\nand sang to the embryos, brand new<\/p>\n
in their woozy shells. I procured
\nsome chalk and drew a pink heart<\/p>\n
around the site, writing
\nin big letter: Caution,<\/p>\n
Fragile Life Here —
\nwhich is what I say to strangers<\/p>\n
when my aura gets dim
\nand I need an extra layer<\/p>\n
of protection to steady me
\nthrough the day’s unraveling reels<\/p>\n
of atrocities. I’ll point
\nto my chest and remember<\/p>\n
how joy survives,
\nhumming through the cracks<\/p>\n
of accidental grace,
\nmaking a home out of nothing. <\/p>\n
Today I watched a crow with too much time on its hands steal feathers from a hawk’s golden haunches, just for the hell of it, stalking suburban streets whose trees soak up aspirations from vision boards of college students, roots nourished by dregs of unfinished dreams. The thick bark reminds me of Dr. Phil’s hands, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[47],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-3hy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12621,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12620\/revisions\/12621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}