Two Poems by Dr. Ehud Sela

THE BLACK CROW

Perched on the wire above

Sang as I stood at street corner
Waiting for the light to change
For me to cross the street aware

Of careless drivers lurking there.

A wind blew, I looked at you,
Your feathers glistened black-cobalt-blue
Your golden talons holding steady

Secure you sang the song of life.
And I, my fellow traveler, with
Two feet planted firm felt
So insecure compared to you.

The noise and fumes of cars became

My world; the light changed
A driver gave me the finger as I crossed
He spat his yellow phlegm through dirty

Window his radio blasting smut.

But you, truest friend, still sang
Your notes like great piano-sound
Forming songs.

IT WAS THERE

It was there by the burnt light, by the gaping wound in my mind that I saw inside my body, curled like a fetus with my eyes open in fear.

It was there by that hole in my soul that I saw my white bones carried away far into the sky, and my heart up on a fallen tree with tears of sap in my open veins.

It was there by the silence of my bleeding eyes that I saw the land carried away like a broken toy, and me as a little boy drowned in my cry.

It was there by my dry mouth that I saw the birds fly deep into my chest, carrying me out of myself into the wind, howling in the white of its pain, drowning into the black of its eye, falsely so calm.

It was there where all that was left was the flickering light of my soul, soul made out of stars and of clouds, and the incessant void.

It was there that I cried with no eyes, that I spoke with a severed tongue held in my bleeding palms, and I shattered in owe as the pressure declined and drew out my lungs.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Ehud Sela is a veterinarian, he owns an Animal Hospital in Margate, Florida. Dr. Sela writes both poetry and prose. His writings can be found online and in print.