The harp and the raven (Marcella Boccia)
The harp sleeps in the hollow of the wind,its strings bruised by the fingers of rain.Night leans in, hush-heavy,a priest at the door of a dying man.The raven watches from the bones of an oak,ink-feathered, bright-eyed,a spill of shadow against the hush of moonlight.It knows the shape of silence,the weight of an unsung note.Once, a song lived here,spun from breath and trembling hands,but the player is dust now,his voice a whisper lost in the bog.Still, the wind plucks at the strings,pulling ghosts from the belly of wood,and the raven, black prophet, listens—knowing that some songsare never meant to end.