The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon

PRESENTATIONS: JONATHAN KNOTT

Love Song to the Owl

I left my warren, cozy and warm, behind.
Striking out into the frozen moonlight
I heard you beckon in the stillness.
The eerie music of your cry
brought me to your tree as though
I were a wingless nestling returning from a great fall.

Your eyes held me in sway,
yellow and haunting.
I saw in them the goddess Athena
sprung fresh and eternal from the forehead of Zeus
fierce, milkwhite and virginal.
I wanted to penetrate your snakeskin shield.

Like many before me, I fell into your eyes
ignoring talons and beak.
The pain was acute and blissful. You
devoured me whole, leaving my clean
bones wrapped neatly in a pellet of fur.
How sweet, to drop me so warm
into the frost-rimmed darkness.