White Bird in the Time of Cholera

 

I was a white bird

in the time of cholera,

under my disguise

a woman perched

between past and future,

no telling which way

the pendulum would fall.

A long beak, hooded, hidden eyes,

they cowered when I walked the aisles,

not knowing that, within,

I was weaker by far than they,

just waiting for my costume

to be stripped away.

I was a white bird, a hooded eye,

a long beak with a question in my heart,

and they cowered when I walked the aisles,

until I picked the one with whom

I'd practice my ghoulish wiles.

for Shay at The Sunday Muse