[Moodpomes: Calendar of Correlatives]

(from 'Stars To Ring' in Owl Light)

Part V (Nightmare)

In punitive dreams, a styptic dust
Smarts in the membraned dark of sleep:
A sheen of crows with luffing wings
Lifts from a ruined elm and wheels
About a harrowed vault of night
To punish dreams with rabid beaks,
Ripping tongues from the mouths of bells
And wicks from the eyes of stars. The lash
That whips the mind is mostly mind.

William F Dougherty

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/night-crows/