by Kevin Grauke
For Noah’s Raven
Everyone remembers the dove Noah sent forth
from the ark perched atop Mount Ararat to see
if the swollen waters had abated. And everyone
remembers how this dove returned with an olive
branch clutched in its beak, a sign that dry land
had risen again, but no one remembers the raven
he sent first, the black bird that never came back,
so here I am to sing its praises, the forgotten scout
of Genesis. Noah must’ve assumed it plunged,
finally, weakly, into water, unable to spy a place
to light. But I prefer to see it not only finding land
but finding it bounteous. Defying orders, it gorged
on fruits, leaving waiting Noah wanting, staining
its bill bloody till it was much too heavy to fly.
Poet Kevin Grauke (he/him) has recently published poems in The Threepenny Review, Ninth Letter, The Louisville Review, The Minnesota Review, and Bayou. He’s the author of the short-story collection Shadows of Men, and a second short-story collection, Bullies & Cowards, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in 2026. Insecurity Risks, an essay collection, is forthcoming from Belle Point Press in 2027. He teaches at La Salle University and lives in Philadelphia.
Artist TJ Norris (he/him) is an award-winning conceptual artist based in Fort Worth. A graduate of MassArt and NSCAD, his photography deconstructs the urban environment to explore social complexity and personal loss. His work is held by the Amon Carter Museum and Harvard University, and he is the author of the monograph Shooting Blanks.
Gulf Stream Magazine 