Raven Maniac, by Barbara Lydecker Crane

Collage, by Barbara Lydecker Crane (USA) contemporary

Raven Maniac

The Raven Maniac can fly
upside down, low or high,
or somersault across the sky.

Another aeronautic trick
is dropping from aloft a stick,
then grabbing it in mid-air pick.

They’re known for raiding campers’ tents
and cabins. Cornered, in defense,
they turn to avian violence

and lunge at nose and eye and ear
till all who face them flee in fear.
Of such a bird, one might steer clear.

Barbara Lydecker Crane

Barbara Lydecker Crane was a Rattle Poetry Prize finalist in 2017 and  2019.  Her fourth collection, You Will Remember Me, sonnets in the imagined voices of artists through history, with many colour reproductions, will be published in October 2023 by Able Muse Press.​