...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEFa4ztm9P0&ab_channel=NancySinatra-Topic

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You see that?

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I say, to the birdfeeder 

With a raven perched upon its precipice.

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A single iota of kindness, an ounce of compassion

Or the slightest hint of vulnerability.

And out come the buzzards,

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Circling.

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The raven caws in my direction -

A prompt, a poke - 

And I can see that one of its eyes are missing.

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Which one are you?

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I ask it - a slight backwards shift to my posture

And a subtle easing at my hip.

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Huginn or Muninn?

Thought or Memory?

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As it caws, I place a 22. caliber,

Tight, little pellet 

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Of cast brass and steel

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Through the center of its black-feathered 

And dust-encrusted breast bone.

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You know what keeps the wolves away?

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I call out, rhetorically, to its then upended feet.

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You f*****g pop one of them, intermittently,

Until eventually, the rest just get the message.

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I wonder which one that’ll be ...

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I murmur, into the recently opened and smoking cylinder 

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Before shutting it with a click

And sliding the revolver, back

Into the make-shift belt-loop

That I'd been using as a holster.

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Did I just shoot Thought?

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Or was it Memory?

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Guess I’ll know before tomorrow morning.

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