____________________
It was as if
They were waiting
For me to come
To show me the way
Back home
Trapped in the woods
Walking in circles
Afraid and alone
Unable to find my way
Back home
I stumbled into the clearing
On the verge of tears
Just wondering
When I would find the path
Back home
They rose up
And I followed them
Unsure why
But trusting they would carry me
Back home
Through the darkness
The darkest, thickest forest
I had ventured through yet
Hoping the darkness was on the way
Back home
Suddenly the trees thinned
And light streamed through
The gaps between them
The ravens had led me
Back home
Sam
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8 comments:
It was as if they were waiting for me to fill their bird feeder again. Enjoy their tasty treat and be on their way. Singing all the way.
It was as if they were waiting for some one to find the bones. They'd picked the body clean, but couldn't move on. It was eerie the way they didn't flee when they heard my clumsy feet crashing through the woods. It was the first time in months I'd followed this path to my friends house. The snow was long since melted and I was pulling off the layers like the birds had pulled off the layers of the man's body.
They must have cleaned him off in the days before that first big snow fall. He would have been blanketed since November. At least I assumed it was a he...It was like those mystery novels Alex was always on about. I felt my adrenelin starting to course though my body. What an adventure! I had no thought of the poor man who had provided it, nor the family he must have left behind, wondering and waiting.
I rush on, after noting approtiate land marks, and swear to the birds I'll be back.
Closing Time
The college Job Finding Center had been helpful, and I had a job: groundskeeper at a large private residence. I'd been working for a month or two when it first happened: they came.
My school schedule allowed me to work late afternoons, and as the days were shortening, I soon found myself working until early dusk. The combination of working late and the change of seasons brought about my encounter with the birds.
Each day, about 45 minutes before dusk they would arrive in the avocado trees of the estate. It was as if they were waiting, waiting to go home before the sun finally set.
I was working in the avocado grove doing weed control when the first bird arrived, a fore-runner of the coming flock. They gathered in the trees until the sun began to fade, and then they moved up the hill to higher ground.
I'd like to think they were enjoying the sunset over and over again, but I think the sun was escorting them to their roosts. The day was ending for them, and it was almost time for me to go home too. It was closing time.
It was as if they were waiting for Alfred H. to rise from the dead and create the 09 version of "The Birds..."
It was as if they were waiting
For me to turn my back;
Their silence a deadly promise,
Those watchers dressed in black.
As I backed away so slowly,
I tripped over a root;
And now all that is left of me,
Are my dirty brown boots.
It was as if they were waiting for me. I saw them all together, as I walked the path through the woods. I say this because it was no sooner that I reached them, that they all flew off together up ahead of me...on the path, in a tree, again.
It felt a little eerie, to be honest with you. Imagine having these little black birds just sitting there, waiting for you; almost as if they’re leading you somewhere. I became distracted by the usual pulls for my attention and found myself more and more curious with these birds. As I’d approach them, they’d fly off again; they would land a little further down the pathway each time, in a tree they’d land and wait.
Closer and closer, I came to the ending of the path; or, so I thought. Little did I know that I was reaching the end of the mountain side. I stood there on that cliff, overlooking the city below me; seeing the lake at the other side of the city and I knew that it was not coincidence. I realized that the birds had led me to a place I was supposed to be. I needed to stay awhile and just think, ponder my life and the future ahead of me.
I didn’t even know I’d fallen asleep until I heard the birds. They all began cackling loudly, as if there were something spooking them. They spooked me and I awoke with my heart pounding, noticing that I only had a short time to return to my car before the sun went down. It was late.
As I walked the path through the woods, less and less of the sun was shining and it became quite dark. It was spooky but, again, the birds were leading me through the path. I felt safe, in an odd way.
When I returned to the car, I looked back at the path thinking of this experience. It was strange, causing me to wonder why and what it was all about. The birds were gone. All the way home, I wondered. I wondered what kind of birds they were, what their history was, what they were useful for and why they chose me. I had no answers for myself, just thoughts…only questions.
As I pulled into the driveway, my wife came running out to me from the house. Well, she was more like, hobbling to me; eight months pregnant and due with our first child in the next week. She was smiling and holding a book. She told me that she finally knew the name, the name that we’d prayed about for eight months. We weren’t able to find out whether we’d have a boy or a girl. The little one wouldn’t show us.
She said that the baby’s name would be Raven. Does that mean it’s a girl? Is that why these birds were leading me on this path? I wondered. I came inside and googled “Raven”; up came a photo of the same birds from my walk. Were they trying to tell me something about my baby?
A week went by and I continued to wonder. After the long labor and delivery of our first baby girl, I looked out the window and into the sky, up to the mountain that I’d walked that path, that day; and I saw them. The ravens were flying in a group. They landed on the tree outside of the hospital. They stayed long enough for my little girl to share her first sounds with the world and then they flew off, in the form of a heart.
It was as if
they were waiting for thunder to splinter
narrowing gushes of wintery cold droplets
sliming through their Saharan throats
some mildew to gulp
annals of sumptuosity.
Beg your pardon? And enlighten with sunshine
busting out of vibgyoric prisms
through mountains and tall trees
to settle onto pores
seismic that shudder
into ecstatic screams
of mynahs in
flight.
It was as if
They were waiting
For me to come
To show me the way
Back home
Trapped in the woods
Walking in circles
Afraid and alone
Unable to find my way
Back home
I stumbled into the clearing
On the verge of tears
Just wondering
When I would find the path
Back home
They rose up
And I followed them
Unsure why
But trusting they would carry me
Back home
Through the darkness
The darkest, thickest forest
I had ventured through yet
Hoping the darkness was on the way
Back home
Suddenly the trees thinned
And light streamed through
The gaps between them
The ravens had led me
Back home
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