Keep Life Sweet

A crow
dropped
a half-eaten
donut
on my deck.

A message
from
my departed
husband—

“keep life sweet”

–Wendy McGaffey

I’m afraid I’m giving you the wrong idea about Crow. He is more than a celebration of naughtiness. Stories of reciprocity between Crow and people abound. Sometimes he brings gifts. Sometimes he brings gifts from beyond the grave. McGaffey’s brief poem celebrates Crow, gift-giver.

He brings a donut. Is it half-eaten because Crow found it that way or because Crow ate half of it? Hard to say.

Nevertheless Crow gives the gift, and the speaker recognizes it as a gift from her deceased husband. There are centuries of stories surrounding crows and ravens as living representations of loved ones gone. In some myths they carry the souls of the dead to the afterlife.

Crow does not always foretell doom and gloom. Sometimes he shares sweetness — as long as he gets to eat first.