The Bradford Poems, by William Kemmett, 1996

In The Beginning

The crow has a bone
stuck in his throat.
His rattle is black as
a “Shaman’s” lung.

He broke the dawn
in Atlantis with his “caw”
And now Alaskans listen
to his “caw”. “Cough it up”
for the peace of lower spirits.

Whales return to graze
the hills to the stone, just
as they did when they
were more land than sea.

Now the whales roll
back to the sea
like great white clouds. . .

And the crow, still darker
than his sign, chokes
on the bone that divides
his call in three
for the rest of time.

—(Excerpted from The Bradford Poems, William Kemmett. Igneus Press (1996))