Mother Crow

A crow I've become
over night!
She visited me
and gave me her feather
and she said:
I am mother
to you.


This makes me a Bird-Borne
a girl of the night
with feathers black as the dark of the moon
and a beak
potent to speak and repeat
the things I hear
and the things I think.


My crow mother told me
that I could say what I wanted,
in fact, that I should!
That birth to me she gave
so I would be her beloved daughter
who only speaks
her own mind.


Now this is a blessing quite unusual
and I shall surely take it to heart:
What mother told me
is to sing of my soul
and to tear the veils apart.