'The Real Reason We Don't Eat Crow' by Charlie Brice

Because the metaphor is so bitter,

tastes like pine needles in your mouth,

makes you blither,

sucks all the saliva, all your precious

bodily fluids, out of every pore,

leaves you empty,

wishing for a port of entry

that allows escape,

promotes entropy,

releases guilt and bile,

resentments harbored

for too long a while.

Ask not for whom the crow flies,

it flies toward you,

eats your liver,

makes you a believer

in your evil ways,

makes your days a drudge

condemns you to judge

your faults and blemishes

acquired through skirmishes

with reality and your view

that you’re fit to be

a decent human being

rather than a nit

with half a wit,

a ne’er-do-well

destined for hell.

This is the real reason

we don’t eat crow.

All Rights. Charlie Brice.

Charlie Brice won the 2020 Field Guide Poetry Magazine Poetry Contest and placed third in the 2021 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize. His fifth full-length poetry collection is The Ventriloquist (WordTech Editions, 2022). His poetry has been nominated three times for both the Best of Net Anthology and the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Atlanta Review, The Honest Ulsterman, Ibbetson Street, The Paterson Literary Review, Impspired Magazine, Salamander Ink Magazine, and elsewhere.