Raven Kept Watch

by Elise Stuart

The Raven is considered a messenger

by several Native American tribes.

Raven sat high above,

watching the brown house

with its empty front porch,

broken picket fence,

battered gate.

He heard the shouting,

the punch,

the slaps, the screams . . .

Then nothing―except

early morning silence.

Raven saw a large man

who walked slow,

pushed himself

into a red truck,

drove a crooked path.

He made a deep kraa sound.

She awoke from restless sleep,

glanced out the window―

the truck gone,

black raven on the pole.

She looked around,

nothing to take,

nothing she wanted.

Pulled her jacket on

to cover the bruises.

Raven followed her

as she ran down the sidewalk,

away from the road the man had taken.

Swooped down from his perch,

wings wide.

As she stepped off the curb,

a woman in a pickup stopped to let her by.

Raven circled.

The woman mouthed thank you, thank you,

a long scar running across her face.

* * * * *

Elise Stuart is Silver City Poet Laureate.