VULTURE
            Michael R. Collings
                c. 9/28/95
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	Or perhaps vulture
	(as my son avers

	although he reclined
	half-sleeping when

	the black shadow
	rose, soused

	as if to clutch
	with careful claw

	my small Ford,
	and disappeared

	above the tunnel's
	mouth)--flash

	of red-on-black
	glint of hooked

	beak but mostly
	bulk and blackly

	ominous shade
	whispers death

	and rises as I pass
	into darkness


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