ravens

it happened one day as ordinary as the next.
some would’ve called it a Tuesday;
they would be right.
he was walking down the main street,
the buzz of cars and people surrounding him,
the smell of gas and garbage filling his nostrils,
the sun staring warmly at his back.

and then,
his right knee started jerking,
a pitch black raven burst from it,
detached itself and flew clumsily away.
then another, slightly smaller raven,
rose up from his left shoulder,
and took off.
then another and another,
from his face, his heart, his toes.
one moment his shape was still recognizable,
the next only a few, purple-black feathers
were left where he once stood.

now, if one were able to follow each raven’s path,
to witness their story,
they would see them flying to the corners of the earth
finding people of all shapes and sizes,
bringing them food,
bringing them flowers,
a few coins here and there,
sitting on their balconies,
watching the sunset with them,
or waiting out the storm.

what they wouldn’t be able to see,
is the ravens getting back together,
ever again.

______

ravens by Dimitrios Kokkinos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License