Ravens
(An Ode to Poe)
Black wings flutter under a darkening sky.
Its call warns you of the danger ahead.
The clouds rolling behind its wake.
The rain pelts down, blurring it from your view.
It calls to you in a voice you’ve heard somewhere before,
telling you what it wants from you.
It will lead you where you are headed,
but if it joins with another, you can forget your destination.
The ghosts of those long since murdered
fly about the night sky searching for prey.
The souls of the damned gather to share
their message of darkness with you.
Their obsidian eyes follow you,
drawing you into a world filled with confusion and despair.
The two birds become three, showing the way
to the devil himself.
They are leading you like wolves to a fresh kill.
They know the future, what will happen
after the battle is fought for your soul.
The trickster, the raven.
You will follow it to the end of your days.
Megan Stewart is a writer and budding visual artist whose work is raw, visceral, and uninterested in looking away. Storytelling, in any form, has always been the thing she can't walk away from. Megan is also the co-founder of Helia Lit, because apparently one creative obsession was never going to be enough. When she isn't writing, she's probably watching Formula 1 and making it everyone's problem.
