I met a black bird one dawning day.
She was bleeding, her plumage
in tatters. Her eyes, oh, god,
her eyes had seen so much,
they were dulled, though not blind,
defaced by embittered kind.

I read this black bird’s shocking story,
and I cried, openly wept,
offered my salted saddened thoughts,
hoping to repay, somehow, humanity’s debt,
what others had ripped from her, without respect.
Her innocence and trust
I could not find, for they had died.

Fledged by despair, wrapped in acid thorns,
she tore herself open, poured her blood
into my heart. I was shaken.
Her agony became a weighty gift.
I felt bitterly blessed, painfully spliced.
She unknowingly changed my life, that night,
as I experienced her crippled mind.

I held the black bird to my light,
whispering love to calm her fright.
I wanted her to see her beauty,
with untainted sight. She sighed
as she explained to me what would not be.
I crawled within her dark black wings,
swept her close, and hopelessly grieved.

I heard my black bird sing her dirge,
slicing winds with tormented words,
her memoried eyes glittered with tears,
her spirit bleak with horrible fears,
yet, she shined so bright. I promised her
I would continually reach for skies
she could no longer see. And I wept.

She hadn’t told me she was going to die.

Erin Moen
2/28/04
© Copyright

Leland's comment made me realize I might explain this piece, few would understand, I hadn't thought of others not knowing who this was written for, it seemed so natural that they would... I have a poetry cyber friend, named Jenn, who's user name is The Ravyn. Brutalized for many years, she finally escaped and wrote of her ordeals. I read her story at her website, not stopping for 4-5 hours until I was done. Currently the link, which is first on my bio page seems to be gone. I will check into the matter. She touched me in that way people can when an open, seeking mind is totally overwhelmed by what it finds. Now, scant years later, she is dying of b-cell agressive stage 4 lymphoma. She's known for a year. We, her poetic family, did not. I don't want her to die.