The Snow Child

. The child, the crow and the old man A solitary crow on stilted tree was perched An ugly black bird with beady eyes that searched For carrion across the shady contoured scape Where glimpsed a bent and shadowy shape A lone old man who trudged the dusky track Saw the crow upon the bough as black as black Their exchange of stares confirmed a mutual bond One old, the other ugly both blights to mankind They talked and spoke in the tarnished light Crow’s friend had died so he’d done the last rite He’d been pining his loss till he saw the man Whose face he knew of old but not the name Crow pondered the past when he'd met the man He had scavenged the streets when hit by a van The man had carried him back to his home And nursed him to health before letting him go Crow wondered if he could repay this good deed But his friend was old and bent and decrepit A sudden flash of light now lit this gloomy land And midst the whitened glow a child waved his hand The child spoke softly with a purity from above He’d come to gift their kindness, their goodness and love The crow who remembered his late friend that day The man who saved crow and took him to safety Both bound by the shackles of how others see them Had made their days dull, depressed and dejected The child now waved his hands o’er the hill and the vale A blanket of gleam now pervaded and lit up the day The sky became brighter, the earth breathed new life The old man reverted to youth again with energy rife The sun gave crow’s feathers a heavenly sheen He was proud to be clever and black and pristine