Our frequent contributor Tom Sexton sent a new poem from the coast of Maine where he is spending the winter—on break from Alaska. Tom is the author of many collections of poetry including Cummiskey Alley: New and Selected Lowell Poems and Li Bai Rides a Celestial Dolphin Home. He is a former Poet Laureate of Alaska and a permanent member of the Lowell High School alumni hall of fame. (Photos below by Kevin Harkins, reprinted by permission)

Old Man Walking in New Snow

by Tom Sexton

A triad of crows sitting in a leafless tree

chattering in Covid about the day’s events

while adjusting their glossy black gowns

like oblates like magistrates. “Caw, caw,”

the one that looks like Johnny Cash insists.

The other two lower their heads to look at me,

bent like a hook and making little progress.

“Caw,” Johnny Cash repeats, “Caw, caw, caw.”