Falling
from new lows
cawing and flapping
through clouds of chaos
through crowds clambering
at connections now carelessly closed

Doves
let fly the doves
open the columbarium
souls have the right to flee
the broken have the right to be free

from this folly

Flapping
with frail feathers
the eagle’s eating itself
and the hawk grown hungry
see it feeding on the fragility

on the fears of the feeble

Doves
let fly the doves
free from the floods
from the lands they have lost
safe from saviours now savage
is there no refuge from the ravages

no end to the deluge?

Picasso
has departed
and La Colombe
has been pinned down
on postered walls for too long

who’ll pluck
the olive branch
from the promise
of paradise if it reappears?

Doves
let the doves fly
return them to the gods
were we ever ready to receive
ever worthy to watch wings unfold

Didn’t we know…

we were the tears
we were the flood
and the onlookers too
of the drowning dozens,
hundreds, thousands, millions,
billions, religions, refugees, righteous

all falling
on foreign soils
on broken wings
now turned away!

Now voted away!

These
are not
the days
of the righteous
for peace has fallen
and the doves departed

The doves…

all hail the hawk
shitting on humanity

Show me we are worth more?

All words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Audio version available on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/damien-donnelly-2/feathers-in-flight