Vulture Tree

1 Tumbling down 
2 a path of wild flowers,
3 Jett Black dog and I 
4 come upon five large 
5hanging 
6 on a dead tree 
7 carcass.
8
9 Five large hanging on a tree 
10 next to the live wire 
11 of electricity
12 leading home,
13 we ran upon that tree
14 seven-hundred seventy 
15 times already.
16
17Today
18 was unlike any other.
19
20 Today, 
21 from that dead tree
22 a buzzard slyly said,
23 “Yo mothufuccus, wus gud?
24 Wus dead gud?” 
25
26 So strange,
27 we tumbled on
28 yearning to hear 
29 a prophet speaking.
30 We circled back
31 around again
32 as if to prove 
33 we are in 
34 a simulation
35
36of wildflowers 
37of dogs
38of buzzards watching over us
39of time barreling 
40through the weeks since
41five large
42hanging on a dead tree
43spoke to Jett Black dog and me.
44
45 Given time
46 for a second thought,
47 at the base of that tree,
48 Jett Black dog and I contemplate 
49 what is good.
50
51 “Five large hang.
52 Five large buzzards hang.
53 Would you
54 call that good?
55 Which one of you
56 can speak?”
57
58 Their words 
59 just as exciting 
60 the second lap
61 as the first.
62 This time 
63 the third one up, 
64 on the furthest branch,
65 said,
66
67 “Death in the ravine feeds,
68 feeds the flowers, 
69 and feeds the buzzards.
70 Like this dead thing
71 we hang on,
72 everything is 
73 hurtling toward life
74
75 except that plastic
76 your kind brings
77 down
78 into the ravine.” 

5.6.23