And Then Say the Ravens,

The night sky
is hungry
swallowing the light from the stars,
and the wind is barely moving
across the face of the moon
snow white
and glowing,
the earth all laid quietly to rest
as the pregnant sky gives birth
to the empty spaces inside of me...

So like silence
and so like doubt,
vast spaces
like blackness
like pits,
the distance between
the sun, the earth, the moon,
your heart
and mine too great...

Because I am too like night-time creatures,
too like my father
afraid to be,
ready to run
as this chest
my cage
traps the thundering inside of me
of that fight,
the flight in an explosion of wings
a cry,
a scream in the dark as another animal breathes its last
and lays
in wait
for the ravens to come like they always do
in my night-time dreaming...

They float down on pitch wings
and stare with glassy eyes from tree branches
watching,
waiting for the chase that is ever inside of me,
watching
as I hide in fear
while the hungry night consumes...

And then say the ravens,
in soft voices always just the same
with staring eye,
"You are beneath my wing,
and I will see you safely home, son...",
before taking flight again,
their laughter mocking into the night
until I gather all that fear and throw it out before me
like rose petals
like benediction,
and disappear into the night.


_________________________

an homage to Poe... the one I owe my first introduction to love of poetry to.