On the Road to Episkopi
The first crows I encounter
are on the road to Episkopi,
that red dirt track that climbs
above the yard of tired boats.
They rise out of the olive grove,
not as a wake or warning
but as a welcome sight.
Their hoarse and sun-dried gnawing
reminds of dawn disturbers
in our garden in the rain.
And then they flap and fall and flap again,
four loose, black flags against the blue.
Welcome, friend, they seem to say
and I reply in kind.
John MacKenna’s most recent works are The Mental, a one-man play, and Between Your Love and Mine, a Requiem Mass developed with the late Leonard Cohen
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