The Crow Funeral by Micah McGurk

Photo by Tyler Quiring

On my way home from the gym one day

I stopped my bike in awe

As I watched a bird battle

Not a single bird, but two groups

Seagulls versus Crows

There were about a hundred crows

And about fifty seagulls

They flew in intersecting circles

To fly around, regroup, and collide again

A beak joust just above my apartment building

I watched for minutes as the fight raged on

Until a single crow fell to the ground

It landed by a sapling in the grass

Missing Broadway and the sidewalk

The battle eventually broke down

And the crows went back to their palm trees

The seagulls headed west

The next day on my early morning bike ride

I saw flowers around the dead crow

Crows have funerals, but not like ours

They gather and inspect

They may mourn, but it’s mostly to warn the living of danger

and to remember what killed their friend

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The Author

Micah McGurk is a writer from Kentucky. He studied screenwriting at UCLA and has an MFA from EKU. He works as a script doctor and ghost writer for a handful of directors and producers. He has two novellas, Crimson 37 and Boom Girl, both of which are available on Amazon. He also has a short story entitled My Face Knows Winter at the literary zine Prometheus Dreaming.

Micah McGurk, Richmond, KY