Night black as a crow’s feather, wind
the sound of a thousand wings. Black pinpoints
gleam from the void. Eyes pierce my soul
forcing me beyond the threshold

to nothingness. There I fall, faster, faster.
Turning, twisting, tumbling, I shriek.
The gray abyss fades, shrinks, narrows,
Mutates to a crypt. I am trapped.

It cracks, breaks, plunges me
into infinite, pulsing white light.
Lost in the emptiness I scream,
begging an elusive god to reveal

what I can’t understand. Chilled by silence,
I touch the black ice of my soul.
Endlessly crows dive, rise to dive again,
taunting me. Their caw becomes my scream.

I wake in a sunlit room with ruffled curtains.
Outside laughing, singing children play
in the blossoming pear tree,
climbing to perilous heights.

A crow caws.