A Crow Does Not Sing

not all birds sing
a crow does not sing

a crow
only proclaims

do not always expect
a song
be it may even a dirge
or an elegy

a lone dead rabbit
on a morning road
and a crow does not sing
it only proclaims

the stillness of death
is not music
the silence of agony
is not a song

life is suffering
not an opera

Buddha's First Noble Truth
cannot be sung

a crow does not sing
a crow proclaims

on this road
this winter morning