Crow preaches his gospel
on top of a streetlamp
whose light he expects
to outshine

Interpretations vary among Crows

as do shades of the streetlamp

Crow anoints new gods
found slipping in
the back door
paints their icons
but cannot contain
their god-eyes
struggles to learn
their god-tongues
hastens to catch up
to their hieroglyphs

Feather quill in hand,
Crow trips over
new god-roads,
eyes blinded by
fallacious lights

Crow looks behind
these new god-faces
turns them over, upside down
holds up a mirror
fails to catch more
than his own eye

It’s a sign, says Crow,
as he returns to his streetlamp
to preach.

Kimberly White’s latest novel is Waterfall Girls (CLASH Books, 2021). Her poetry has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Cream City Review, Skidrow Penthouse, and other journals and anthologies. She is the author of four chapbooks, Penelope, A Reachable Tibet, The Daily Diaries of Death, and Letters to a Dead Man; as well as two other novels: Bandy’s Restola, and Hotel Tarantula. She also dabbles in other arts, and spends most of her time in Northern California with her pens and papers and massive collection of Tarot decks.