Ornate railings make shadows on the walls, while black birds hover over the townspeople. Crows, are pecking prophecies. The dark air is cut by hundreds of hands reaching, swooping. Echoing silence stands still, encompasses.
The birds dive into the crowd to peck and agitate two or three. Their tails touch those hands to deliver a verdict. Their fluttering wings whisper foreshadow in the ears of those who will make eyes water.
On this night, the defendants’ unconcious will pour out completely. Makeshift bodies, inside wooden rectangles, will be buried under direct perceptions of truth.
The birds wipe away facial expressions, stick pencils into deep crevices, and explore empty caves.
Objects dash in all directions, but have no where to go.
They set hair on fire, and change its color until lips are barely there.
They take away burdens of great multitudes and fill hollow spaces.
They sacrafice the ones loved.
Instinctively, souls are flown away to nests and eyes that once perceived a fleeting, dull light are closed forever.
Then the crows line up like jurors back from deliberation. And with beady eyes and cocking heads, they fly up and hover once again.
Thoughts on Trial 
The immediate impact of my first read was intense and creepy surrealistic images that came flooding into my mind! I imagined a tableau of Daliesque proportion. Each line provoked haunting new imagery. Dare I say that the name Poe popped unbidden into my consciuosness. I will go back to it again and again to search for deeper meanings between the lines but if I fail to find any because my analytical skills are too feeble have no worries. Because you send me to bed with creepy images that will surely haunt my dreams.
The exact thought which immediately came to my mind when i read this poem was “haunting and poetic”. This is the kind of poem which truly doesn’t leave you as a reader, even long after you’ve finished reading it.
Very thoughtful and inspired work i must say, and as a writer who has been writing for 15+ yrs myself, i am truly impressed by the quality of such a wonderful writing as this.
Congratulations my friend… i am in awe of your talent 🙂
btw, i have a writing community over on orkut.com which is a community i founded upon the priciples of friendship and brotherhood/sisterhood amongst us writers, a place for us to share our work with each other, without any of the negativity which is often present in a lot of the larger writing communities on orkut… if you’d be interested in joining, here is the link to my community, which is now 267 members strong and literally growing by the day —
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=42042184
if you’d like to join our community and post some of your writing there, it would be my honour and pleasure to see you there… good luck with your writing in the future, and God Bless.
Very well penned Susan !!! Rick pointed this masterpiece to me sometime back but I was bit caught up with work, but now that I have read it, I wish I read this before .. It is an awesome post .. painted very vivid images .. Way to go .. Kudos Susan 🙂
It’s been a long time since I’d been on this blog. Thank you for your comment!