The Visitor

Corvus corax with croaking cries Why look at me with one black eye? Your presence here I’d not request What seek you in black splendidness? Why perch you there on bended bough Hid beneath your feathery shroud? Why stare at me with solemn bent Why do you croak a dark lament? Begone! Dark shiny messenger Sound your dirgeful hymn elsewhere. But still it perched unmoved in tree And now both eyes transfixed on me. Unfolded wings that made no sound The visitor alight to ground And plucked an iris growing near I knew right then its purpose here.