The Crow....keeper of the gate.

 

From Tales Unleashed (2019 Bookstand Publishing), accompany the crow high above

the landscape as two intruders enter his domain....

a quiet place entered by few on an infrequent basis. The Crow, keeper of the gate is 

is shared below, I hope you enjoy it. 

                                                                The Crow, Keeper of the Gate

Each morning as the new day would break, the single crow, high in his nest, would be the first to emerge from his overnight lodging of sticks and leaves to survey the land below him. Sitting on the nest’s edge and preening his feathers as he stretched, he would jerk his neck side to side, listening and looking for anything new that might appear below. It was not quite daylight, but the long shadows below him were already losing their hold on the tombstones that lay beneath. Nothing had changed overnight. The solitude of the morning was punctuated only by the crow’s call and a similar one coming from afar. He was the king of his castle. His nest towered over the fifty or so headstones that had been here for well over eighty years.

What a serene and pleasant place to nest, in the forest, high above the mossy grasses and wild flowers that spawned their yearly gifts of fragrance and color. Today would be just another day for the crow . . . he would fly and call and search the vicinity, always with one eye, keeping track of what transpired in or near his home base. But few people came here. The last two men in a van with shovels spent almost a day here, opening a hole in the ground below his nest and tucking a long wood box into the ground, then covering it before speeding away right as night fall started to makes its entrance.

These grounds were quiet indeed; except for the occasional chipmunk or squirrel moving through the maze of stones, little happened here. One particular day the crow watched as a young buck came into his ground, laid down, and gently went to sleep. Flying down to examine the deer, the crow saw the wooden shaft protruding through its side, a fatal insertion he concluded as the young deer was destined to move no more. Oh my, it was hunting season again.

But today seemed different, the crow felt uneasy as he overlooked his domain. Was something about to change today? As he strained his neck to the east he saw a vehicle approach the cemetery gate, enter, and make its way to the bottom of his tree. The truck disembarked two men, each smoking those profane-smelling things that the crow hated so much.

The crow watched intently as the two men opened the back of the vehicle and started to remove some kind machine he had not seen before. Removing his hat and wiping his brow, one of the men uttered, “This tree should have been taken down years ago Henry. It has fouled about twenty yards of the cemetery with droppings, broken limbs and sticky sap . . . it’ll be good to get it down.”

With that, the furious noise of the chainsaw began. The crow, still sitting on his nest edge, felt the buzz and vibration as the teeth of the saw found its mark. Within a minute or so…the nest started to move, the crow taking to flight before he could be pulled downward by the whirl of the falling tree. As the crow circled over head, the two men congratulated themselves as they surveyed the project just completed. His home was now gone, a change in the tapestry of the forest that he could hardly comprehend. The crow settled onto the top of one of the largest monuments watching as the men put their equipment away and drove off.

The crow wasn’t beaten though. He took to flight and found another tree, not as big as his original home, but ample nesting for his future days and nights. Sitting on his new perch the crow nodded to himself, in a positive attitude, not one of defeat. As he watched the vehicle go down the hill, the crow thought to himself, you win today, but I will be in my new tree when someone someday brings you back, and places you in that long box in the ground. I will always be here, it is what I live for. Until then you two, enjoy what time you have left before you return to my eternal place.  The crow launched himself into the air, to celebrate his air, his home, his total domain. The crow, above this orchard of marble and granite, will be there, now, tomorrow, and always . . . waiting for the next arrival at the gate, because he is the keeper.