Sonnets

004: avis

Art thou crow or swallow? Art thou cloud or sky?

Art thou bright or darkling thrush, or midnight's glowing airs?

Knowest thou of fury's wandering or of the morning's sigh?

Knowest thou of death, of dreams, of heaven's dreadful prayers?

Hast thou seen the awful shine of fear 'gainst the firmament,

The wretched flash that stoops and dares the final bound?-

Hast thou viewed the terrorizing, glimmering determinant,

That leaps and dances, tearing and galloping aground?-

Roaring psaltery, thundering petrichor through its veins;

The fiery gale howling, shattering the fettered mind-

My thoughts dare to be free; my soul dares to be fain,

My body dares to shed the shackles, burst the binds!

My love, my knowledge, my being is dark and vast;

I am the beast, the wraith, the dread infernal ghast-