the crows know me

(inspired by "Gifts of the Most High" by G Alan Johnson.) The crows know me, and I, in their untamed glares, and wild, accepting, onyx eyes find a solace. No need for ID, for they’ve been watching me, my face, yet unetched by time and life's own artistry, is a passport for their uncivilized and predatory attention. The corvid and I are kindred in many ways. We've all scavenged for fortune's scraps, shared the sting of bitter winter snaps, and feasted on the meager leavings of the day. In this dark pact, of watcher and watched, a silent truth is proclaimed, that all that’s done beneath the sun, is seen by dark, intuitive, discerning, if not caring or humanly wise eyes. The carrion crows know me, and those feathered sentinels of air, mark my coming with raucous, heralding cries. They gather, black against the sun-kissed sky, in councils held upon the wind's swift motions, like children, they argue - observing still - as they play. They causa no fear, but someday I’ll disappear, unraveled, bit by bit, not by malice from on high, but by beaks and claws, to caws they mantric-like cry. Perhaps death really does have an ebonite beauty and, like angels, his servants have wings, and pick us apart when our time is through - and those sharp bills come due.