The storm fades part 1: There's no sunset without darkness

4. The Ravens and the Dove

The clearing was warm with a soft gentle breeze
One gentle summer's evening
As a snowy white dove flew in
Singing a song of love
Circling the glowing canopy.

Then the sky began to darken
In seconds
The sun receded
Like a violent eclipse
The trees screeched
Casting gruesome shadows onto the ground below
Even though the air appeared clear
It stank of toxic smoke.

As the rain hammered down
A pack of ravens - the dark scavengers of death appeared
Not circling the trees -
But the dove
Their prey
The ravens' charcoal wings spread like the midnight sky
Turned the breeze to ice
Seemingly beating all hope away.

The dove put up a valiant fight
As lightning dashed through the infinite black above them
It was no longer summer
Now forever winter
As the trees stood stripped - gnarled fingers jeering
The ravens harmonising not with the buzzing insects
But the whistling wind.

The ravens' aggressive calls
Blocked out the dove's delicate melody
The dove begged "Please! Just listen to me, I know what to do!"
The ravens replied harsh and bitter
"What do you know! You're just a dove - look at you!"

The brave dove conceded
"Yes, you may be stronger than me,
But you can only bat your wings and scream, you see;
But I have brains, and knowledge, and power
If you listen to me we can save this forest and watch it flower."

The ravens laughed in hysterics, squawking so loud
Too much ego, too confident, far too proud
"If you're so sure you can fight,
You'll still struggle because you're tiny and your feathers so white!
Don't ask us to help when you can't find your way out
Because we're leaving forever, even if you scream and shout."

The courageous dove fought day after day
Even though it constantly feared the return of the ravens
The flowers wilted in fear
And the trees, bare, trembled over their future
But the strong dove battled on
Quietly confident peace would prevail.

The dove used olive branches to build
A safe home
As the darkness passed
Like wispy clouds
The wind was silenced
And the hail became
Warm drops of rain
As the sun lifted it's head again.

But the ravens were not so smart, and screamed
"Oh dove, help us please!
We're stuck and you escaped with ease!
We're hungry and tired and the mud around us has stuck
So try as we might, we can't get out of this muck!"

The dove laughed as it began to dig them out,
"Look at what you've done to yourselves, your sad little pout!
You were too sure you were the best, far too arrogant, delusionally proud,
When all you were doing was shrieking nonsense so loud
You presumed you were the best, assumed you had the right to disrespect,
Now you're the ones who this will come back to and affect."

The ravens began to bat their wings in sullen dismay,
But the dove had not finished, and continued to say,
"You cruelly taunted and tricked all the other creatures -
Now this is your punishment - only one of its features,
You mocked and judged, said I was incapable,
Because my feathers are white and your aggression unbreakable;
But now look at you pleading to me
It pays to be kind and caring, won't you see?"

~ 28/8/19 - LD x