an unkindness of ravens – Abbie Hart

once
i read this adage
that bad people don’t think
they’re bad people
which made me think i wasn’t bad
which made me think i was
which put me in an anxiety spiral
at god knows o clock a.m
sometimes i think
maybe i’ve burned bridges
just to have something to run from
like i need the hurt
maybe i’ve gotten used to it
like when you live
next to a highway
and can’t sleep without the cars.
a group of ravens is called an unkindness.
i sat in a hallway with a group of ravens
once.
when the unkindness flew away,
very few were left.
does that make me a bad person?
i did things i regret
some were why they left
some weren’t
does that make me a bad person?
or does that make me
someone who lived in unkindness
for so long,
she snapped
like the telephone wire
under their little feet.
she told me
‘look what you’ve done to our unkindness.
this wasn’t my fault.’
i said
‘bad people
don’t think
they’re bad people.’

 

 

Abbie Hart is a teen poet from Texas. Her work has been seen in the K’in Literary Journal, the Tipton Poetry Review, Rise Up Review, Maple Street Journal, and the CAMH Quarantine Zine. She is Poetry-Editor-In-Chief for the Maple Street Journal and the Literary Forest Magazine. In her spare time, she enjoys tech theatre and painting. Her website is abbiemhart.wordpress.com and her poetry-dedicated Instagram is @a.m.hart.poet.