woman bird

cloaked in black,
the color that absorbs all light

she mocks the songs you know,
that you are vulnerable to,
though the words have no meaning to her.

lyrics pour forth from her mouth
and you lick them up like honey -

"choose me, love me"
she sings.
this word she comprehends,
like all predators do.

surprised, you look up to find your lips
covered with tar,
warm and thick and inescapable

and the chorus you thought you heard
is really the moaning of eaten souls,
gutted and rendered and forgotten
in the filth.

only your eyes are unclogged
and finally wide
as her beak finds purchase in the flesh of your chest
and the nuzzle becomes a tearing of bone and sinew -
she has won her prize.

she only wishes to fill that void,
and you cannot blame an animal for its hunger,
passed from mother to daughter,
mother to daughter.