Crane Your Neck

By Will Schmit

I roll through an intersection of peacocks on

my lunch break. The driver window, down

with the thaw, lets African Pop music drift

out to the gathered march of geese and cranes.

Sound bites spit the news of cities burning,

refugees, pandemic cycles, baseball to begin

again, the proof of a spring offensive is a road

side bloom or a shiny dime face up on the road.

Calla lilies outdo my meditation, waiting on rain

they shine, reigning in sun they blare hope from

the mud of last year’s fires, wave green banners

at a blue sky with burnt yellow dreams of silent

sirens. I read a war poem in translation. A school

desk is the only roof left in a blown-out classroom.

The peacocks lift from the street to branches as

one, the geese and cranes charge the clouds.

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Will Schmit is a working class folk poet from Northern California. Will’s most recent recording Fix My Car: A Spoken Word Mythology is available for streaming at Spotify and on iTunes.