Spiritual Ravens

Phantoms, with glistening

heavy black wings

and dark pearl eyes,

they perch on a dead

snag and expel their call.

A raspy screech,

that echoes through

the morning-damp pines

and for an instant

all that heard will pause,

as a shiver sweeps through

the early morning.

Then the sounds of their

thick wing-beats,

as the birds rise up, gathering

shadows through the fog

silhouettes against the

darkest clouds,

they disperse

to scavenge

those omens, search

for lost souls.

Holly Abidi