The Solace of a Crow in a Cemetery

she was promised a wish come true by a crow with a broken wing
as she took the short-cut home from school though the cemetery
(it was a Thursday and she'd had cottage pie for dinner
served by the lady who always wore a hair net, even at weekends)
"Why me?" she'd asked, but the crow nodded five times
and if it were doing chin-up before it limped away.
The following morning she asked her English teacher, Mrs Maguire
(who was Scots) whether there was a precedent for such things
but the teacher just shrugged and said crows were bad luck
but if she became Queen remember who gave her an A.
On Saturday she went to the lake and waited for the sword
to rise up from the water but nothing happened
but the soughing of the wind and the reflection of a kite
and she was just wishing she'd brought a sandwich
when her dad appeared with a picnic and a bottle of Tizer
and told her stories of her long-dead mother.