Welcome to The RavensPerch

When I saw quirky Bruce walking toward me up the busy street With face not relaxed as he maneuvered through people I stopped him just the same, because I like the guy a lot. Seeing who had spoken, Bruce grinned and stopped to chat. During the conversation, the subject...

I Among many shivering senators, The only warm things Were Bernie Sanders’ mittened hands. II I was of three minds Like a meme Of three Bernies riding in a subway car. III Bernie gesticulated vehemently to the other candidates. It was a notable part of the debates. IV...

I first saw you in the exotic fruits aisle of the grocery store as you made your way among brightly colored hybrids, your arm extending, choosing which to place in the basket that you wore like a corsage. You must have seen me trying to be surreptitious in the...

stooping for river-treasure, grocery bag, tight under my elbow, hands immersed, shocked in the current’s cold, annoyance of snipping minnows at my feet — everything is valuable at six. learning pyrite and mica as other kids learn pterodactyl and T. Rex rubs no gold...

Advancing and ebbing in the tide, to taunt me: the empty, battered skiff those two thugs rowed my god-tormented husband away in, has drifted back to shore. Odysseus knew their plans when he stepped on board for his banishment, and I feared I’d never see him again, not...

As the god-tormented old man was rowed away, my husband spat, “Good riddance!” Though to me, Odysseus was never a frightful Charybdis, but ever courteous, while my husband demanded more than the Wanderer could ever give him in the way of a father’s love: his years...

I’ve no memory of Father’s first voyage, though I’m told Mother held me in her arms and wept as his flagship carved the waves. Twenty years later, I’ve ordered him gone, tired of his playing the raging Minotaur, blaming Troy and the sea for his tantrums fueled by urns...

Clasped like a fractured necklace round their soaring throat of stone anchored against quakes by offset blocks, round corners, interlocking joints, these walls are masks. Their rhomboid eyes stare over squares, sun temples, cliffs sliding to ribboned river, empty as...

When I was twelve a hurdler was my hero. He was sixteen had ripple abs a brush cut vertical without hair wax eyes yellow and indifferent as a cat’s. His girl (bulging striped tube tops) was long on giggles and lipstick before breakfast. They were fixed stars on the...

(1957) There was a trick to it I mostly learned before the razored metal bands came off and I could drive. A girl named Adrienne proposed, if she and I each cocked our heads just so (neck cricks or creaks not in the picture then), steel points where wires attached...

Please check for a notice at your local P.O. We sincerely regret this inconvenience and hope you are not disappointed; fulfilment is our game. Still, in these times we suggest you temper your expectations: completion is chancy and contents may settle or shift. Some...