It swayed and creaked in

the wind.

The black silken crows

gave a queer semblance of

life to the tree,

Its bare branches covered

with a multitude perched like

the clinging of leaves.

It swayed and it creaked

and spoke of its sins,

Dark feathers fluttered,

as if to  fool a passerby’s eye

that life still dwelt in the trees dead limbs.

None made a sound, not a caw

not a screech, no  utterance did they speak;

for you see they had  been given a task long ago,

to bear silent witness to the migration

of lost souls.

For no man,

should ever die alone.

So they perched and they preened

as the body swayed and creaked

on the rope below.

by Philip Wardlow