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
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