The Only Way a Raven Can Love

ANGELA FERDINARDO

Her name with yours is metallic to taste; 

I am but a shell, your useless waste. 

Old demons claw, begging to escape; 

swallowing and gagging, inside they rape. 

I am a child called IT stuck in a cage, 

bones aching with sorrow and rage. 

Shivering as flesh touches glass, 

hand in hand you pass. 

Eyes of mockery grin into mine, 

don’t worry about me; confined in your cell, I’ll be fine. 

For I am the parrot behind majestic steel,  

forced to watch locked handed ornaments like it’s no big deal.  

I squawk, but I can’t speak, 

I sink and succumb to another’s defeat. 

I glance upon the open window trying to break free, 

but I can’t. Don’t you see? 

Jailed within my mind,  

lack of courage for words I never will find.  

Vivid imagery plays with deceitful perception, 

I beg for flames to engulf your reflection.  

A parrot remembers as the raven instills death, 

onyx feathers strangling the last of love’s breath.  

I may feel trapped in the symbolism for which I create, 

but only I can harness my own fate.