Picnic and A Crow by Joni Caggiano

Image Source: Canva

in the glee of a sapphire sky, the sun plays leapfrog with a cloud

cake chinwags to cheese falling off the family’s tattered picnic table

landing by hungry carpenter ants grateful to be done building a stable

boys swerving on a swing sitting sideways long ago nailed to an oak

wrestling, like a couple of bulls, a raven surveys on the fence close by

as the sun sinks lower, one of the children lets out an anguishing cry

dimness grows, night owning foresight, the family heading to their home

raven singing his prophecy flying low, family yelling arriving in their door

the man hits the woman who hits her head on the table before the floor

the man imbibed on rum pining for his aging wife, for he hated to cook

tending to his lazy boys was a splinter festering, so off to an aunt’s home

the raven waits for the end, feasting weeks on the old man, dying all alone

-JONI CAGGIANO

Joni’s blog is Rum and Robots, where she has published poetry, photography, and short stories. Take a look at Joni’s work in Spillwords Press NYC, Vita Brevis Press, The Finest Example, The Tiny Seed Literary Journal, I Write Her – The Short of it, and MasticadoresUSA. Joni’s work was included in the following anthologies: The Sound of Brilliance (The Short of It Publishing, Volume 1 2020), Inner Eye (Poets Choice, 2021), and It’s Not Easy (Poets Choice 2021). Her blog is an effort to give back – she is a surviving Adult Child of Alcoholics. Joni is a retired nurse and paralegal.

You can also read her writing on Instagram @jonicaggiano and Twitter @theinnerchild1.

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