In Search of a Different Flesh

I've wondered about the faces, you know...
In the silent nights I've trudged along
The endless streets a maze to commit
My own small artwork
A collection of crossing lines no one else could see
The buildings loom like tombstones trying not to be
Their presence of no consequence
Just coffins when free
In the emptier hours
When lines have crossed in the dark
When the picture within has formed one of those secret places
I've wondered, you know
I've wondered about the faces.

With the bleached canvas of sunlight too long forgotten
And sometimes the rain of days has fallen
I find myself in the blackest of corners
I find myself
My face to your drawn one
I stretch and uncurl, the skin too taught upon me
I stretch and turn
Bent within me
Held in my hand
A talon becomes me
No longer steel and edged
But an extension of a pale finger
Not just one but many
Not just my body but, too, my wings
Uncurled and unfurled
You may look upon my glory
Terror in your eyes as you do see
A terror unfair as I delve within you
My talons pierce and turn
Reflect the skin to within what may be
But the question asked is not revealed but skin deep
And opened flesh tells little but of me
With little more than a whimper you've surrendered to me
Nothing more than what I know
Just another common bit of flesh
Wings returned and talons away
I've reverted to what was
Within a coat and just like you were
A sigh, despair
I walk away
The dissection revealed none
Time edges to day
Yet another mundane one
But I hold hope still
With every soul I pass, I wonder
I wonder about the faces...
About the next one I have alone
I wonder if beneath
If they, too, will be like me.