A Raven’s Dream

Once, to the world, but a witness, an eye,
For sheltered I kept her, out of the sky—
Bound were these wings of unsoiled silk
And hidden I kept them, frightened to fly.
Held with but dreams and touched with but wind
These wings ached to soar and savor the sky
As weightless as children that dance on the lea.

As daring a pious casts scripture to flame,
Says “to hell with this faith and to hell with His name,”
I set free this raven from safe solitude
And opened her wings to glory and shame;
As conductors draw music on air with a wand,
These feathers drew fire in eyes of the tame
As careless as children that reach for the sun
from the lea.

Lost in dreams of endless skies
As far as wing of velvet flies.
And in my dream upon the lea
I find a voice is coaxing me:
“Touch but my hand to know of bliss,
Give but your wings spread wide for me
I’ll harm you not, for what is a kiss?
Share with me here, deep in your dream…”
I reached as hungry children do
And found myself pushed to the lea—

Enduring the rhythm makes frozen the veins,
So shatters the body when all that remains
Are feathers befouled and blood turned to ice,
When smothers the weight of sticky white lies
On the back of a raven, whose wings are spread wide.
Ravaged, I posed for the sun over high
In motionless terror, frightened to fly—

Broken and soiled he left me these wings
Which carried me once to dreams in the sky.
No need now for dreams, for incarnate is fear
That wings plucked as mine can nevermore fly;
As nightmares wake children shaken to tears
Who dream that sun moves out of the sky,
And never again for the children to see
While they weightlessly dance
        without heed
                on the lea.

        Lauren L. Zavrel