REQUIEM

"Messenger" by S. Auberle

REQUIEM

The raven I come upon

while hiking the mountain

lies sprawled in the grass,

glossy feathered except

for the bullet hole in her neck

where flies crawl in and out.

The cruelty sickens me

as I kneel before her,

remembering a childhood tale

of a tree somewhere

on the road to heaven

where birds go to die

and I watch, for awhile,

a wheel of black angels

circling in the glittering sky.

- mimi