Monday, January 25, 2010

The Crowkeeper

I was reading Shakespeare at 1 in the morning last night and I came across the word Crowkeeper; an amazing, antiquated synonym for Scarecrow. I tried to go to bed but my head started composing this, so I got up and wrote for a while, and this is what came. Song? I'll let you know if it progresses in that way. For now, just something.

The crowkeeper’s kept no promises made

The evergreen martyr confined to the everglade

The crowkeeper holds for one season his tract

            The other spent mourning his fruitless entrapment

The crowkeeper, rough, from burlap was sewn

            One cornfield to keep, one garden to own

The crowkeeper’s brim stays steady the sun

            His knots are tied strong but his spirit’s undone.

The crowkeeper tires of his endless charade

            Sleeplessly silent, his fashioned façade

The crowkeeper, primed for his battle with jet

            The ink of the backdrop with ink-foes is met

The crowkeeper steadies his bludgeon, his stare,

            To meet the impending, the knights of the air

The crowkeeper fends off the nightly advance

            He trusts in his stillness, his motionless dance

           

Keeper, keep us cradled now

Fast, the dusk encroaches

Charcoal falls, we feel it settle

Weary as we are somehow

1 comment: