Criss Crosses
(Chiasmus)

Even how
the crow
walks is
criss crosses
as though
each step
checked the
last. No one
knows why
he advances
as well as he
does or
could expect
that laughable
croak to work
in so many
circumstances.

—Kay Ryan

Kay Ryan’s most recent book is The Best of It: New and Selected Poems. She is a MacArthur Foundation fellow and a former U.S. Poet Laureate.