Raven's Feather

ENGL 217: Poetry

Raven's Feather

here lies the discarded raven's feather, tossed out
for all purposes useless, like clipped toe nails,
lightly resting on a sea of short grasses,
protected, wavering on a bed of lucky clovers.
sharply, quickly graduated from the purest avian white
to the blackest black as decreed by humanity.

shattered feather shaft, exploded from its raven home.
the wind picked it up to rest here-
mussed and wild, the effects of poor upkeep,
each feather string like a poorly moussed hair.

but this black feather is not desolation's symbol;
here a little black fly walks up, down,
traversing on a journey in its new home.

in this way the breakdown is the preservation,
as the fly lives a day on vacation.