The Magpie: A Key
- The Magpie:A Key
One magpie always means watch out.One magpie in the yard means stay in the house.Two magpies in the lane mean don't go farther than the roadside.A magpie walking with its beak open, but quiet, means go out, but come home quickly.A magpie calling means something will happen en route.A magpie on the clothesline means watch your back.Two magpies in the hedge mean don't worry about what the sparrow that hopped inside your open door means.A magpie flying, or a tiding of magpies, means place large bets against tomorrow.A tiding of magpies spotting the sloped field means the old man up the road is lonelier right now than you are.A magpie on the fence means leave the mail in the box.Two magpies, one flapping its wings, mean yesterday was better than today.A magpie landing in the dooryard while you are looking out the window means your systems are working. Steady on.A magpie mentioned by a neighbor who stops by means what you said first made poor sense.A magpie pecking at the gravel means work harder on how to speak after long silences.Two magpies walking together away from the house mean draw the curtains and the door. Something you don't know is on its way.A magpie under the rhododendron means you have not hurt anyone, or questions and answers have come apart.Two magpies in the old garden mean choices are long-shots. [End Page 8] A magpie, two magpies in a rough wind or rain mean making anything, or minding anything is a slow race home.Two magpies on the stable roof mean the days have packed their bags.One magpie making a nest has stolen what you love. [End Page 9]
Kerrin McCadden is the author of Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes (New Issues Poetry and Prose, 2014), winner of the New Issues Poetry Prize and the Vermont Book Award; and the chapbook Keep This to Yourself (Button Poetry, 2020), winner of the Button Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and the Sustainable Arts Foundation Writing Award. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Best American Poetry, Poem-a-Day, American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Los Angeles Review, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. She lives in South Burlington, Vermont.
