For Mariana Jiménez

Quoth the She-Raven “Forevermore.”

There is an oddling in our seasonal flock, 

A bird that is more young woman than avian

But who chooses to migrate with us in spite

Of her hybridity, and her humanity.

She says that she came to this frozen tundra

Simply to witness something bigger than herself:

The end of Winter.

To see the end of Winter means to witness 

The desolation that the barren season has brought;

That as the sproutlings resurface to bloom anew,

They take in their old despair, and grow crookedly for it,

For as the Phoenix, they never fully forget the death 

They have overcome.

On a tall stone wall the She-Raven perches her talons, 

Her human mane swaying in the brutal winds,

Pale even against the silver sky.

She has returned from her long voyage for her twenty-fifth Spring,

And as she feels foreboding for the same beginning as ever before,

Quoth the She-Raven “‘Tis the wind and nothing more.”

She came from a southern and sunny shore, 

And on her pilgrimage again, and again, 

And again learned to recognize that all creatures, 

There and here, are all the same in country broad 

And mountain steep: in forests deceptively abundant, 

Always and never free-for-all.

She grew to know that even the longest Winter

And heaviest snowfall are not guaranteed to freeze 

And extinguish the seeds of corruption.

The Sun may have returned to this light-parched land 

Where she chooses to spend her every Spring, 

But she sees no clarity in the nebulous horizon:

Bluebird is too close to Bluebeard for comfort.

Animals wake to trick and prey on one another.

This She-Raven is the fertile dark of the dawn of time

Brought over again into our waking realm, but never to stay.

She has departed this world too many times, for too long, 

Expecting all to be different upon her return.

Now she knows that this cycle is unending,

And vows to the wind in her deep She-Raven call

That she has returned at last to remain here 

To witness every great war,

Every Winter, forevermore.

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Samara Garfinkle is a Montreal-based classical soprano, poet, and voice teacher

with a Master of Music from the University of Ottawa. Her poetry has been published in Lantern Magazine, Columba Poetry, and Yolk Literary, and her debut chapbook, Dual Realms, was released with Cactus Press in July 2022. Samara is the host and co-coordinator of SpeakUp: The Montreal Interactive Poetry Exchange.