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Early September

Strange Day--
Cloudy, but not the usual flat-gray-blanket-cloudy;
Bits-and-pieces cloudy,
But just a handful of moments where the sun peaked through.
One of those warm-and-cool-at-the-same-time days,
A day that feels more like Wisconsin September
Than California September.

A crow flew behind the pines
As I walked past the parking garage.
No feathers were ever so black
As these, so black
Against the bright cloud
That they could have been nothing at all.
An impossible hole in the sky.
I'm sure, now, as I think about it,
That if it had not flown so fast
I could have seen the bright points of the stars
Gleaming far away behind those feathers.

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