Crow, feeling his brain slip, <br />Finds his every feather the fossil of a murder. <br /> <br />Who murdered all these? <br />These living dead, that root in his nerves and his blood <br />Till he is visibly black? <br /> <br />How can he fly from his feathers? <br />And why have they homed on him? <br /> <br />Is he the archive of their accusations? <br />Or their ghostly purpose, their pining vengeance? <br />Or their unforgiven prisoner? <br /> <br />He cannot be forgiven. <br /> <br />His prison is the earth. Clothed in his conviction, <br />Trying to remember his crimes <br /> <br />Heavily he flies.<br /><br />Ted Hughes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/crow-s-nerve-fails/
