You can count on the crows
before sunset, bickering.
This is my faith.
How they swirl the air like ink
or smudge the trees
in charcoal, out of sync
with their own shadows.
This is my faith before nightfall
as evening skies
the color of rosé
segue to black
with echoes of cruel laughter.
Arthur Solway’s poetry and essays have appeared in The Antioch Review, Barrow Street, BOMB, The London Magazine, Salmagundi, Southern Poetry Review, TriQuarterly and elsewhere. He was cited among the 2018 finalists for the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize, finalist for the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Award in 2019, and the 2020 finalist for Anhinga Press-Robert Dana Prize for Poetry. A graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, his critical reviews, profiles, and cultural essays have also been featured in Artforum, Frieze, and Art Asia Pacific magazines. Winner of the 2019 Tupelo Press Third Annual Broadside Competition, he presently lives in Santa Cruz, California.
