LONGEST NIGHT

"Prayer of the Longest Night." Negative mirrored image. Riverwalk Trail, Puyallup, Washington.

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LONGEST NIGHT

3 o’clock. Afternoon. The sky already listing twilight.
The color of dead salmon in the shallows. Near the riverbank.
Silvered skin. Flesh once pink gone gray. Now sky.

Then the rain. More rain. Rain and rain upon rain.
Torrents from the sky. Rising river. Turbid water.

Many were worried about me. How could I tell them?

I didn’t wish to be dead.
I was certain I already numbered amongst the dead.

Murder of crows sat in the cottonwoods.
Cackling at me. Teasing. Taunting.
Little did they know I was their cousin. Raven.
I cried back. Deep throaty caw. Fanned my black feathers.
Spread my arms into wings.

Lifted into the sky. The salmon sky. The river sky.
The bruised night sky. Into the silence of the crows.

Copyright © 2018 by Troy's Work Table.

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Other Longest Nights.