"Field Late in the Fall."
It was a practice at this time to hunt crows,
for instance, which are one of the most difficult kind
of birds that annoy the farmers down there.
And having got one, you'll use it
as a decoy to frighten others off
or to attract them so that they could be more easily shot.
Crows, of course, are very, very smart.
The dry sleeves of the corn stalks flap and rattle,
alive with gestures of wind, as the wire black feet
of the glistening crows hold fast.
Bobbing and swaying on hollow spines,
they bow when the stalks are bowed by wind that whines
in their black empty beaks.
Their eyes glitter with ants and beetles.
Above them, the living call and wheel.