Out your old, raw eyes
Between thin crows’ feet
Their walking hunger
Sees black fallow fields
All meat and feathers:
Crow parliaments
Mouthy parent birds
Guillotine stray seeds
Divorce husk from flesh
Strewn men and women
Holding back hardship
Broadcast dry fresh seeds.
Black birds snatch and eat
Food for sparse winters
Starved you enter a village
Are greeted, feasted
Given best shelter, clothes
Food, women, friends.
A short year revolves
To scare preying birds
The village men and women
Hone edge on blades
Cut short your visit,
Place you in a field
Tied to seasoned wood