A. A. Gunther

Atavism

The crows around the farmstand down my street

Have interesting beaks, ideally-shaped

To give the occipital lobe a tweak

By reaching through the socket of the eye.

They’ve seen me walking by for weeks and weeks

And are too bored with me to even bleat,

But at their wingbeat all my sense retreats,

And something in me shrieks “Today you die.”


A. A. Gunther is a legal writer from Long Island, New York. Her short fiction can be found in Dappled Things, while her poetry appears in The Friday Poem, Mezzo Cammin, and ONE ART and is forthcoming in Ekstasis and elsewhere. She has eight younger siblings, at least two of whom can vouch for her character.