Clean and Unclean

Walking through the forest
In the cold and rain... 
The forest is quiet
Lush, the sideweeds are intruding upon the path
Trees lay with fungi upon their trunks
Looking like a dead deer.
Except for a flock of crows
Cawing in disturbed fervor
There is the silence of the rain
Tapping against the umbrella of the canopy.

I walk closer to it,
And the crows stop.
A ministry flows through my mind
As God gave me a poem for the day.
The deer are startled by my presence
Which is unusual.

I feel darkness in the forest.
The unclean birds feast
In the forest...
For only something large and dead
Could draw such a gathering.

Walking closer to it
I realize what is unclean
Are like these birds;---
Scavengers, and animals naturally
Associated with death and decay.
I am made wary by the birds
And the deer are too.
I speak to the animal
Telling it I too am made uneasy.

Driving away from the park
There is a State Police vehicle
Parked on the side of the road
With no driver.
It becomes clear to me the unclean animals
God once told Israel not to eat
Are the very same
Who congregate at death.