we stand alongside, listening to emptiness

raven on the fence
stands unafraid as I approach—
companionable silence

long pause in wind's breath as lowering sky slips down
black streak in high air over canyon abyss the raven lands
on a stark outcrop a hundred feet below the stone lip still
a thousand feet above the gloved lobed canyonlets below
flung together as leaves spreading out and down from riverbranch
to swerve of cut through high plateau a boat of a million years
wings fold in and tufted throat clucks once to itself content
and the waiting begins, high in the air, waiting, above the plain

long silence unfolds from basalt raven wings
we stand together in silent company, as the world pauses