The White Breasted Crow Poem by Gert Strydom

From the sky it swooped down shrieking
completely black
with a white patch at its breast
gazing with small black intelligent eyes at me
with feet stretched out
and four claws on each
opening and ready to close around a branch
during the landing

but I was sitting on a bench in a park
with the nearest tree
twenty meters away
and it landed on a wooden spar
of the bench's backrest
right next to me
and sitting upright it said: 'hello'
amazing me with the greeting

and looked curious
at the slices of bread
that I was eating
and it was obvious that it wanted some.