Every Fallen Feather - Shayfer James

My angel didn’t fall,

she landed.

In spite of what the guards commanded.

And she nourished my eyes,

wearing only her wings.

And we stayed up all night,

doing heavenly things.

She told me they would come to find her.

There wasn’t any way to hide her.

But I bolted the doors,

like the fool that I am.

and I cried in her arms,

«I am only a man.»

She replied,

«That might be true,

but I think much more of you.»

So for seven days, I walked beside her.

And for seven nights, I slept inside her.

But I woke on the eighth,

with a cold on my skin.

And a space, in the place, where her face should’ve been.

And I knew that they had come to get her,

so I gathered every fallen feather.

And she warned me of this,

but I always refused

when she said I’d move on

because that’s what men do.

I replied, «That might be true,

but I think much more of you.»

And as the years go by,

I’ll be looking to the heavens.

So I went to search the sky one morning,

and I saw her on the ground before me,

with a tear in her eye,

and a bruise on her chin,

and a wound on her back

where her wings should’ve been.

So I knelt down at her side to touch her,

and she told me that the fall had crushed her.

In exchange for her sins,

I’d be damned for all time.

So she gave them her wings,

if it meant I’d get mine.

So I held her as the sun was rising,

and I whispered as her heart was fighting,

«Oh I’ll pray for the day that those fools follow through,

cause I’ll make them all pay for what they’ve done to you.»

She replied,

«That might be true,

but I think much more…»