Just Off Campus

This raucous flock arrives uninvited
night after night high in the limbs

of a sycamore planted squarely between
an academic hall named for astronauts

& the campus ministry, these dark birds
unhinged, their conduct unbecoming,

putting even fraternity boys' all-day
benders to shame — and no one

able to explain the provocation
of this aerial act, this bird circus

disturbing the peace with antics
it will take a firehose to disperse:

no allegory here, only crows
on a rampage, over the limit,

unrepentant, hell bent.

Copyright © 2007 Christian Knoeller All rights reserved
from The Listening Eye
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission