To Some Purpose Fitted

Americans. Like breathing, like
sleeping, persistent in locating
the use of things. Quick to note
the utility of black and white
filter to expose a composition
to call a bare tree dead, to assume
two black birds must be pesky crows
must be mates nesting, rather than
two solitary ravens perched apart
in a not yet budded tree.
Like a reporter in April
mining the mind of a poet laureate
for the value of worked words:
What can poetry do for people?
As much as a color photo
that appears to be black and white
of a tree that appears to be dead
supporting two birds
that appear to be crows
against gray sky that might be April.