I sensed , I did not see them pass
five black birds against the moon
and felt at once the inevitable loss
of a revelation gone as soon as shown.

Arrow of unknown desire
they pierced my heart with lonely cry
and set my aching soul afire
with a rush of wings across the sky.

The vicious innocence of all
the dreams for which all children pay
tore from the earth the ragged pall
in which its soft corruption lay

for I was small , the earth was small and they
the dark harbingers of judgement day.