Cry Crow
by Marley Reedy
Illustration by Samzok Wangdi
Weeping bird seen evil, seen silver. Eyes brown seem sad. Feathers black not enough. Cry crow, the saddest things you’ve seen tear at dry curls until your scalp bleeds. Weeping thing, weeping face. So pretty, so pretty.
Ever saw a crow cry. Saw the fat tears falling raw.
Ever leaned in
To the hollow of a crow
Ever heard the girl who
Hides in the dark
In the pitch black breast of a crow
Dark enough so she can’t see the shade of her own skin.
Out of her mouth falls a pack of matches
Burns them all with her eyes shut tight so she won’t see the color of her own skin.
Smoke curling straight up
Smoke lingering sideways
Spills out the crow’s mouth
Crow, smoke filled crow. A smoke filled throat hacks and spews hatred
Out of her mouth falls a comb
Couldve been white hot the way she recoils
Covers and hides her hair in clumps in her hands, dont let her see how tangled its become -- what would she do then
Sick crow, sick with pity, chest aching with self pity
Girl can’t see the crow coughing and crying
Just beats on the walls of the cave
Dont notice her brown fists, the fists full of hair
Brittle like matches she thought it was
Uglier than the air in here, drier than the crow inside
She dragged and maimed her scalp in the dark, she can’t see
No, the crow wouldn’t swallow a hand mirror and she wasted all those matches
So how could she see how pretty she looked when the crow swallowed her whole
Hatred rolls off the tongue now, the crow feels it burning a hole in its chest she ruined everything ruined herself and killed the damn crow in the process
Right off the crow’s tongue rolls apologies wrapped in pity and burnt curls and bile anything beautiful has already been eaten by stomach acid
What did you do? What did you do crow to the girl What did you do What did she do What has she done to you What has she done to her beautiful hair?
Marley Reedy is a sophomore Anthropology major and a writer who turns her thoughts into poetry. She admires how poems make art out of words. She is increasingly interested in associative and abstract forms of poetry.