Analysis of Black Bird
painting is for pictures too hard to understand
so let me paint you a picture
of a girl who has a little too much to understand
her heart a two ton brick in her fist
that kept her pinned to that exact hole in the ground
that he wanted her to be in
when she is 16 those 38 minutes feel like an eternity
clinging to her sanity
like the last molecule of burned up air
in a gas chamber
she slept on cindered feathers
sucking on the bones of her rotting body
holding back panicked breaths
his venom spit splashed across her limbs
"you're so pretty"
seeds of fear planted in a girlfriend
whose boyfriend didn't know she couldn't go any further
limbs of her bare body branched
creaking away from his whispered breaths
leaves burned up with the heat of guilt
hidden in the smoke of her pleading eyes
her roots ripped up and thrown away
with the drop of her pants
her gritting teeth sewn shut
by the bone needles of a broken bird
her brittle body vibrating against the pine tree
that looked "so pretty" just moments ago
two bodies
two lungs
pressed against the cage that kept her soul contained
red and blue flashes
translate to blackness
four years later
her sheets still soaked
trembling with the sound of her own
frozen voice cracking
melting into puddles she tried to pick up
with dirty hands and a dirty heart
dripping into the exact consistency
of the mud he left her in
fingernails full of his fingertips
and dew on the grass
came from her eyes and the sheen of her body
clothing buried and burned
smoking up to follow that bird
that unwillingly flew away
blackened painting hung up on the pale bone frame
she can't see his face
she can't say his name
she carved herself up like an animal
creating a scarred picture
everyone's seen before but few have known
she breathes a storm then pounds her body
until her tears turn red and everything goes numb
and she can finally believe for a second that her hands aren't his
but there's something beautiful about her scarred body
and the fault lines in her eyes
the way she scrubs blood from the floor
the way she doesn't stay quiet anymore
the flame of her guilt grows higher
when she thinks
if she didn't speak up
he would've run to ruin another perfect perfect thing
whose picture would end up looking a lot like hers
Scheme | ABA XXCDDXBEDFXDXBXFXGHXXIDXXXXJX BXKLMXDCXXDXIHNXNXBKDXJ DGOOBXMLE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10111011101 11111010 1011101011101 010111001 110111011001 11100110 1111101110100 1010100 101101111 00110 111110 10101101010 101101 110110101 1110 11110001 1110111011010 1101101 100111101 11110111 1000110101 01110101 101101 010111 1011010101 0101010001011 1111011001 110 11 10101110101 10110 01110 1110 0111 100101101 10110 10011011111 110100101 10010010100 1011100 1011110 01101 11010011010 101001 10111011 10100101 10101110111 11111 11111 1101111100 0100110 101011111 110111010 01011101011 011100011010101101 1110100010110 0011001 01111101 0111011001 01101110 111 111011 110111001001011 110111100110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,315 |
Words | 473 |
Sentences | 1 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 29, 23, 9 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 456 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 106 |
Font size:
Submitted by IsabelGrace on November 10, 2021
Modified by IsabelGrace on November 10, 2021
- 2:25 min read
- 9 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Black Bird" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/113710/black-bird>.
Discuss this IsabelGrace poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In