They’re in charge

“Crow on a Branch,’’ by Kawanabe Kyosai (1831–1889)

“Five crows, frock-coated in dignity, have arrived and sit upright and still on a bough. One thinks, ‘Oh, beloved symbols of New England’ or ‘Drat those birds,’ depending on whether one is planning a poem or a cornfield.’’

— Richard F. Merrifield, in Monadnock Journal (1975)