"Birds as Us" and "What's Left Behind"

by Savianna (she/they)

Birds as Us

Two doves fly along the sky

Together

They stay together

In love

Happy

They bask in the sunlight

Playful with each other

Enjoying every new moment

More than the last

Enjoying everything

Enjoying

Perhaps they are not doves

But ravens

Two ravens glide through the air

Seeking out their next meal

Side by side

Next to each other

They fly

They look out for each other

Protective

Caring

Two dark streaks

In a sky so light

One Unit

There were never any ravens

Only crows

One takes a hit

Broken

Weakened hurt

Seeing this

The other flees

Separated they are

A bond so easily broken

By an issue so small

The remaining crow will heal

And learn it’s better to remain

Alone

Sometimes I think we are birds.

I just don’t know what kind.

---

What’s Left Behind

It’s her call that wakes me up.

From a dream I suppose.

When I open my eyes, I expect

Not what is present,

The familiar,

But it’s not

Everything is different.

I remember the ocean from

The screens of childhood.

A calm wave,

Carrying happiness for all.

My first step into the water took me under.

Almost gone,

Forever.

I suppose she taught me that expectations

Are not reality.

As if I didn’t already know that.

I can’t forget the strength of the water,

Of the current,

The pull it had on me,

On my body.

The room is darker than it should be.

And something is missing.

Everything is missing.

Is this the dream?

Where is she?

All it took was one moment

And my love of the water was diminished.

Replaced by a fear I

Never knew before.

I heard her call.

I heard a call.

Didn’t I?

I can’t truly remember being pulled

Under.

Or coming up for that matter.

But I remember the feeling,

The terror.

The wrongness of the water.

Everything is different.

Her call is missing,

Leaving behind a gaping silence.

It’s not supposed to be silent.

To this day I’m afraid of the waves,

Of the power they hold,

The danger they hide behind.

A mask of beauty.

Of serenity.

If I didn’t hear a call,

What woke me up?

I long for the days I didn’t know.

I long for a calm wave.

Why is everything so empty?

It didn’t look like this before.

I guess as I grew I realized that

What we expect is not what we get.

Reality has its own way of taking what we know

And leaving nothing behind.

An emptiness takes control

Of the cavern of the old,

The destroyed.

Reality takes control

Of the mind.

And you have to exist

With what’s left behind.

Did she leave you behind?