Scarecrow

Back when elephants grew on trees

and holy cows ruled the ill-lit jungles,

there lived a crow, who’d caw through days and nights

like cawing was the only thing she was made of.

She cawed at the cows,

and the monkeys,

and the pigeons,

and the leopards, 

and they all turned away,

because that is how the jungle learned to treat noise without teeth.

The crow thought otherwise though;

elated how every soul in the jungle was terrified of her.

She was a magician, and fear was her sleight of hand.

Then one afternoon,

she cawed at a wolf.

She cawed, and cawed, and cawed, 

and followed it too far to turn back.

And when she finally ran out of distance,

the wolf held her by the throat

and kept chewing at her silence

while her eyes stayed open.