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Sonnets From Other Lives: June

A murder of crows flies across the sky—
heading westward—fleeing from the setting sun.
June swings on the gate & wonders why
they do this every night. There was someone—
her teacher-- Mrs. Good Old What’s Her Name--
said they were roosting. What is that? Like roosters?
She’s confused--roosters & crows are not the same
thing. It’s hard to know just what the truth is
with grownups sometimes. They’ll call something “teasing”
but when she does that same thing they call it “fibbing”.
Shadows grow. She notices she’s freezing
& jumps off the gate to warm herself by skipping--
singing-- crows can roost & that’s a thing I know—
& the other thing I knows is roosters crow.