indifference belongs to the trees

Irene Cooper

“A Murder of Crows.” Robert Patierno. source: Red Raven Art Company

indifference belongs to the trees
just because they’re taller doesn’t mean
they’re watching over us. the apple
bloomed ecstatic this year. we don’t harvest the apples.
the birds eat most of them. or they rot,
feed the ground. either way, to the tree.
the raven the jay and all the rest
of the winged populace
are not indifferent to the trees,
which provide shelter and vantage points.
my kid went to a school named after a conifer,
finally free to choose her own company.
anxious flock, often unkind in their molten
disorientation. she’s in her 20’s now, smart
about a lot of things, opinionated.
what a flag can mean, what it doesn’t.
i never could protect her. the other day
i watched a murder of crows flap back an intruder.
then they disappeared into the trees.
birds don’t fucking play. they don’t.

Irene Cooper’s poems and reviews appear in The Feminist Wire, Phoebe, Utterance, VoiceCatcher, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She facilitates creative writing workshops in Central Oregon and co-edits The Stay Project. Committal, a spyfy thriller, is forthcoming from Vegetarian Alcoholic Press. spare change: poems  is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.