By Anonymous
Each month, the YU Observer sends a call to YU students for poetry submissions following a specific theme. This month, the theme was “‘Phoenix’”, and we are featuring the anonymously written piece, ‘Phoenix’. Other submissions of honorable mention have been published as well.
Her tears crystallize into droplets,
Tinkling like marbles
In the jars of antiquarians,
Who scratch away the ruby pebble
Of her congealed blood
From the hollow shaft,
To flick it away-
Admiring her gossamer feather.
Her ethereal song-
poignant and stirring,
How she burned until there was nothing left
Yet choked out black ashes from her newborn lungs-
A piercing screech of life.
They say don’t be afraid-
How little they know of flames,
And living in the shadow of approaching fire
Haunted by memories of burning
Her mouth stretches open
Swallowing only air,
Wordless.
Her language forgotten-
Whisked away by the waves of eons.
She flies alone,
Her wrinkled face weary,
Basking in the silence of loss-
Where unnatural creatures settle
Who don’t belong.
As you gently card your hands
Through her incandescent feathers,
She releases a primordial wail.
Don’t ask her to sing-
Let her tears puddle on the asphalt
And drip into the gutter with the rain.