Sable Wings

Last night, as I rested lightly

with closed eyes and shallow breath,

I dreamt a grove of falling feathers,

and words whispered in wings.

Alone I walked 'neath arching tree,

'till a crow flitted to me, then

clasped my shoulder in reprieve

to greet me as if her kin.

In innocence's temerity,

the fledgeling dug her talons

as roots into my chest's flesh

and wrapped her wings 'round my back,

with a gentle nudge to my face

as in affection's embrace.

And delighted was I to find

her healing heart in flutter beats

ushering warmth in persistent 

closeness contained in sable silence.

Because I was the dreamer,

the wandering stranger, lost

in my swirling chaos of thought,

while she was the light, the torch,

the fragment in me I'd lost,

or never found, or simply forgot.