by Jennifer Shelby
My child is three and cannot pronounce mother
she calls me Murder instead—
a life cut short by violence,
a flock of crows invading the sky
I choose the crows,
caw into the darkness
I choose the sky,
wings spread like shadows in the night
sister to the clouds
companion of crescent moons
a queen of cobwebs on a graveyard throne
Mother to this earthbound babe
she smiles at me with all the magic of her age
I leave the clouds, the cobwebs, and my throne,
To gather her inside my wings
Her sticky hands straighten my crow-queen crown,
A jumble of mushrooms, twigs, and half-wrought crystals
“I love you, Murder,” she whispers into my feathers
and together
we fly
JENNIFER SHELBY (she/her) hunts for poems and stories in the beetled undergrowth of fairy-infested forests. She fishes for them in the dark space between stars. While her stories have appeared in many fine places as part of her ongoing catch-and-release program, "Mother/Murder" is her first poetry publication.
Mother/Murder can be found in Augur Magazine Issue 5.2.
