Was A Raven

 

The light bends away
fleetingly

I dare chase after
startled by my sorrow

reaching to grasp the elusive beam
instead
I’ve a fistful of fire
frustration
and feathers

charred
deep ebony plumage

my ears are scorched
by a coarsely blared caw

as in the corner of my eye
I glimpse
a flaming raven
spiraling wildly
plummeting toward earth

it’s caught
by the blinding rays
of a nocturnal dream
a nightmare
that is not my own

about a foreign land
in which I lived
before my birth
but have never visited

suddenly
the falling fiery figure
eyes blazing red
disappears

vanishing
into a gaping hole
opening in the earth

at that moment
flushed with the pangs
of debilitating uncertainty
I begin to sob

as the sun sets
on my future

and all my past sins
begin to repeat
in an endless loop
of sad surrender

my body shakes
convulsing
in the laughter
of madness

my mind
flooded with a lone thought
is ripping at my sanity
as my logic leaks out
and I lose altitude

screaming

“at least
I think
that was a raven”

*
rob kistner © 2022

More poetry at: dVerse

 

8 thoughts on “Was A Raven”

  1. If this was a dreamscape, this was creatively well done. That endless loop of sad surrender can be maddening. That fall and quote at the end, gives us a dual perspective.

    1. It was a dreamscape Grace, inspired by the image posted with the piece, and by the fact that I can never remember how to identify the difference between a raven and a crow?!

    1. It was a dreamscape Carol, conceived to reflect the conflicting images of a dream. It was inspired partly by the image posted with the piece, and by the fact that I can never remember how to identify the difference between a raven and a crow?!

    1. It was birthed in my subconscious Ingrid, and I interpreted the Raven in this dream to be freedom, and the foreign land to be Ukraine, or any country under siege, and the gaping hole to be repression of Putin’s extremist politics, or any repressive aggressive politics or ideology.

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