Lady Crow visits and shivers

Smelling of oil and spilled road salt, Lady Crow takes a short rest on the barren tree that grows along the shoreline. She shakes and preens. She puffs and combs her feathers. She looks to the white sky and sighs; it is a cold day and the promise of spring flickers only slightly on the horizon. It will be colder before it is warm again.

With a stretch of her wings she floats away from the winter wind by becoming part of it.

  Pearls of snow flutter down from her perch, their journey a short-lived legacy of her visit. They sparkle as they fall.

Jan. 10, 2010 \ Read it on Scribd \ Photo attribution

Gabe: I had the strangest dream. You were making me eat crow.
Jeni: What?
Gabe: It came in a large jar like bulk bird seed and there were little egg-shaped seeds you had to crack open with your teeth.
Jeni: What?
Gabe: "Don't you know that the crow is the only of the avians whose proteins are completely contained within a protective shell?" you kept saying.
Gabe: And I was eating the little black crunchies that were also in the jar, and you freaked out because those aren't really for eating, you said, they were just packing materials.
Gabe: Which is why they don't taste so good, I replied.
Jeni: Were you sleeping at your desk?
Gabe: No, this was last night.
Gabe: I woke up and felt kind of sick.
Jeni: I bet.