Down the deep dark unknowingly hole.
Eyes closed as to limit the senses to only the falling sensation.
Stomach in dozens of knots,
Mouth closed tight to keep everything in.
But an eye opens...
Then the other...
The hole isn't pitch black.
It's dark but not too dark that the eyes can't see the curious things plastered on the dirt tunnel walls
and the objects falling with you.

This isn't so bad.
You're not falling in somersaults and the world...

A croaking call silences the night,
A flit of black takes off and disappears into the black sky.
It's long claws curl around a new branch and it settles.
Hours pass and it's hollow eyes watch a simple house.
Soon it's surrounded by more flits of black.
Quietly in the dark pine, they wait.

The darkness turns to day, but not one raven flies away. 
Their claws stay curled tight to the branch that has called them. 

They watch as...

A croaking call silences the night,
A flit of black takes off and disappears into the black sky.
It's long claws curl around a new branch and it settles.
Hours pass and it's hollow eyes watch a simple house.
Soon it's surrounded by more flits of black.
Quietly in the dark pine, they wait.

The darkness turns to day, but not one raven flies away. 
Their claws stay curled tight to the branch that has called them. 

They watch as...

A child looks at her reflection and has no complaints,
She just brushes her teeth and washes her face.
Her day goes on without any fear of mistakes,
Not one thing in the mirror fills her with hate. 

She just brushes her teeth and washes her face,
But the family horrors from last night make her wish she didn't wake.
Not one thing in the mirror fills her with hate,
But she wonders if she'd be loved more had she...

At seventy I hope to kiss the same lips that graze mine now,
The ones that are as soft and gentle as feathers.

Gentle, loving, honest and raw, they feel every inch of me;
               My lips,
                 My cheeks,
                    The way I speak,
                         The...