How Was I To Know

                                  for Lisa

how was i to know

that the woman sitting next to me

was a crow

her hair shining

black and her eyes

beads of black in almond pools

i should have seen

the circle of five orange seeds

placed in front of her

cross-legged on the grass

but she was silent

covered with a dust rose shawl

with thin wire rings in her ears

her feet bound in chinese slippers

her nails painted crimson

her lips gold lustre

her breasts flat

next to me

beating

hidden under a dust shawl

she

waiting

to eat

each kernel

growing on my land.