Raven

 

Embedded in the Sufi poem
I came across a raven,
but when I returned to find him
he had flown away
from the empty page.

I searched him out
page by page
in a frantic skimming
through my life:
the dying embers and smoky ashes,
of rages and ravages of want,
ending in the cold epilogue
of a sunken heart.

Naive me, a sparrow
whose life is short,
Entranced by the raven
I once glimpsed,
Only to be abashed
by his hideous beak.
Better to hide than to seek
if one confuses Friend with foe.

"Pitiless ravens do lie in wait
for this bird of the heavens of God..."

C. S. Cholas

May 5, 2022