Stan Galloway is a professor of English at Bridgewater College, Bridgewater VA (did no one see that coming?), where he also lives and writes. He has a book of literary criticism set to be released in spring 2010 called Teenage Tarzan: A Literary Analysis of Jungle Tales of Tarzan. This poem was inspired by Stan’s third visit to Africa (first trip to Kenya), where he stayed for 10 weeks teaching. Stan gets at a universal truth, that appearances can be deceiving, but he makes this point using the image of a crow, which, no matter what you call it, is still a crow.

You call out “Ever! Ever!”
like your all-black cousin
tuxedoed for the formality of life
respected because of your dress.
You differ nothing from the thieving
death-eating character of crows,
but the beauty of your vest belies
your nastiness.
How long will we be fooled by
sin in pretty wrappings?
And you answer “Ever! Ever!”