She has a fear of falling
So she clips her own wings.
Expectations make their nest
In the chip between her shoulders,
Whispering false secrets,
Force feeding bite after bite
Of grief and monotony.
Black feathers swimming in the mud
Of her ancestors’ last breath,
Evermore earth-chained as she.
The crow mother inhales drudgery
And exhales death.
Silver crown long since lost
Forever in her yesterday,
A clay prison engulfs
First the eyes, then all at once
Unable to recall a life of motion.
Her daughter’s wings tickle the sky
As close to heaven as her
Crow mother’s soul to the earth.
