
by Ashley Beth Pinzel
art by Joey Feldman
The crows love the dusk
The crows love the dawn
They caw in murders
They caw in sevens
Only
During in between times
At other times they might murder
And at other times they might crow
But never do they crow in murders by seven
Except when the clock
Reads purple for heavens
“Silly, rabbit
Crows can’t read clocks”
No
Perhaps not
But I bet they
Can read magnets
You know who else likes to come out
During those in between times?
“What’s that, Uncle Rusty?”
Faerie folk
They caw in fours
The crows
Caw
Caw
Caw
Caw
There might be some hesitation
Some passive aggressive
Antici………
Pation
But maybe the rain
Isn’t really to blame
I mean
It can’t rain *awl* the time
I would, like
Friggin’ Die
“I HATE SUNSHINE!”
Said the Magnificent
Marvelous
Mad
Madame
Mim
“Rule Four
No cheating”
Said Merlin
But yeah
They always crow in fours
Especially when two or more
Are gathered
In a group
One crow
Whose chillin’ by himself
Caws once
Or three times
Prime numbers
They would caw only in prime numbers
Whilst flyin’ solo
Those hipster fucking birds
One, three, four and seven
Those
Are the numbers
Of crows
Sing a song of sixbits
A pocket full of Wi-Fi
Four and twenty blackberries
Baked into a white, Macbook Pie
Have to Fly
Have to Fight
Have to Crow
Have to Save Maggie
Have to save Jack
I’ll Be Back
But only during
One of those
In between times
You know
The Ones
With the Crows?
“If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.”
The Doors of Ruins and Druids
They say when one door closes
Another door opens
Why do we close doors?
And
Why do we open them?
How do I close doors?
After I’ve already opened them?
And better yet
How don’t you forget
Why you closed a certain door?
It is as such
When you’re cleaning your house
And you stop in the middle of your step and you forget—
Why you just came through the door behind you
I know I came into this room for a reason
But now I forget
But better not let
The door close behind me
Because I might not be able to get back in
And one day I might remember what I need in this room
I’m sure I will remember me and come back in real soon
So, yeah, I’m not gonna close it
Ima just leave it…….eh, there
Juuuuuust like that
After all
When did a swinging door
Ever come back
To bite you in the ass
And we’re walking
And we’re swimming
We’re just singing
Just singin’
Singing in the ra—
Rap, pat pat tat
Well chicken in a bucket
What the fuck is that?
A Closed Door?
Why, if I didn’t know any better
That shit’s a boundary
And I ain’t got no boundaries
Around my shit
Fuck It
Let’s see what’s inside
See it is, you see
I don’t like things hiding from me
I like physical transparency
For spiritual transcendency
And isn’t cognitive behavior therapy
All about breaking down
Doors in the mind?
Anyway?
“Darling, I think there’s someone at the door.
I’ll go see who it is”
“Excuse me ma’am !
But there’s been a terrible accident
My friend’s bleeding to death in the street
And could we please use your phone?”
“There are no phones here”
This is only a house
Of a thousand
Transylvanians
“You’ve arrived on a rather special night
It’s one of the master’s affairs”
AP: “YES IT’S MY SISTER’S BAT MITZVAH! TONIGHT SHE BECOMES A MAN!!!”
“I CAN’T GO TO SCHOOL TODAY, MUM!
I GOT A BIT OF PAIN IN ME GULLIVER
I SHOULD BE FINE THIS AFTER LUNCH”
“Or certainly by this evening, yeeeeessssss?”
“Oh just because the police haven’t picked you up doesn’t mean you’re not up to no good, yeeeeessssss?”
“Oh! I’m sorry, I was just wondering which door to choose.”
“Knock, and the door will open.”
Walk this Way
Live Life Like an Elevator
Living it Up as You’re Going…
She Said….
Don’t open that box
There could be trouble
I heard it on Pandora
“Don’t walk that way!”
“I said don’t walk that way!”
“If she’d ‘ave kept on goin’ down that way….”
“She’d ‘ave gone…”
“You sleep better when you’re
You sing better when you’re
You need me more when you’re straight.”
Oh shit
Now I remember
Why I closed that door
And now it’s a mess
And now once more
By leaving the door ajar
I’ve re-opened a scar
Oh shit
Get the stitches
Get the scar kit
We don’t want to see this bleeding shit
Not again
Where is the fibrin?
WHERE
THE FUCK
IS THE FIBRIN?!?!
The Vitamin K dependent
Clotting factors?!?!
Hmm?!
Two
Seven
Nine
And Ten
Warfarin’
Rat poison
Dissolves all of them
Makes them go away
Makes you bleed out your nostrils
And under the door
And away
Can’t go over
Can’t go under
Can’t go through
Can only close a door
Between Me
And You
And one day I’ll forget
That I closed this door for a reason
The warning sign
Might wear off
Or maybe I’ll just
Tear it off
See it is, you see
I don’t like things hiding from me
I like physical transparency
For spiritual transcendency
And Isn’t cognitive behavior therapy
All about breaking down
Doors in the mind?
Anyway?
But isn’t self-respect
And self-worth
All about putting up boundaries
Anyway?
And the best way to understand people
Is to understand yourself?
And you must put up doors
To protect yourself
But it’s O.K.
You can plant a holly tree
On either side of your door
Ward off the evil banshee
And the demons will tremble no more
You can write in rune
Just like the Doors of Durin
The West-Door of Moria
Pay attention to the ease
In which one can travel East
But the road to the West
Is a never ending quest
And to get there
It’s not a matter
Of opening the right door
It’s a matter of closing them
Lewis wrote about wardrobe doors opening
Tolkien wrote about dwarven doors closing
They were friends
From the World War I beginning
To the philosophically differing end
The Watcher
In the Water
Might be your Mother
Might be your Father
They will tantalize
With the same tentacles
Which used to give you all your roots
They will close that door right behind you
So make sure you bring your boots
This time
Shit gets slippery when wet
And don’t ever forget
Why you closed that door, son
Install a fucking combination lock
To remember yourself
Speak friend and enter
Otherwise
“The point was
In his being a gifted creature
His ability to talk, his words
The gift of expression
The bewildering
The illuminating
The most exalted
And
The most contemptible
The pulsating stream of light
Or the deceitful flow
From the heart
Of an impenetrable darkness.”
“Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow!”
Or is it as Blake said ?
That “if The Doors of perception were cleansed
Everything would appear to man as it is
Infinite.”
?
And now she’s a twentieth century
Dead-bolted
Combination changed monthly
Readable only in moonlight
Crazy like a…..
Shh
Did you hear that?
Darling
I think there’s Someone
At the Door
Head Like A…
And you can hide in your hole
And pretend you have control
Tell the story that you once had happiness
And how now it’s been stole
And how it’s because of all of you
And you can believe it to be true
Until one day all of your choices
Will be laid out right in front of you
The bouncing choice to sink or swim
To express pain with art
Or self-destruct within
The choice to soar above your enemies
Or the choice to wallow in the mud
You know what?
You can keep the glory of reaching level 60
You can mount me for one night and tell everyone you did me
I was just lonely anyways
You can peel back the Suboxone strips of Life
Partially turn on your Poppy receptors
While partially blocking the euphoric effects
You wanna know what comes next?
Stomach cramping
Dopamine cycles
Congratulations
You just added another basic necessity
To your Eat-Sleep-Procreate cycle
And it costs about a dollar a milligram
Have fun with that
I will not eat those pills, Sam I Am
I will deal with my shit the best way I can
Don’t need no self-afflicting razors
See
I’ve got me this pen
And this lighter
Bic doesn’t make syringes
Probably all for the better
And with this pen I’ll touch some paper
And hear all those demons grow suddenly quieter
And I’ll put it together with the publishing press
I’ll document my demon battle
I’ll show you my stress
Because light is the darkness’ most feared
And by my hands
I will have climbed myself out of my own hole
While simultaneously saving my soul
And I will live on to ensure more stories are told
Of the Inner versus Outer Quest for Hearts of Gold
And with my Mirror of Galadriel
I’ll never get old
But just get Seasoned
As the Seasons turn
Like our Elders have Told