LOOKING FOR A SIGN

A persimmon tree, for Pete’s sake!
Doesn’t that mean anything at all?
And a rainbow... not just one rainbow
but two, one above the other...
and close together in the dark sky...

I looked around for a dove... would
have settled for a pigeon... and
I’d have been satisfied with a twig
of any kind. It wouldn’t have had
to be olive or laurel or whatever
it was the bird brought back
to Noah, and sure enough...
there was a bird up there, and
I got a picture to prove it, but
it was just a blur, a flutter of wings
at the very top of the tree above
the clusters of persimmons... and
I don’t even know what kind of bird
it was... I’m guessing it was a crow
because there are a lot of them around.

“Not enough,” she said, “to be a sign.”