The image of sparrows “cast[ing] a crooked line on their way to invoke other omens” is particularly evocative. Idk why, but the image —and it could be because of the spooky season—conjures up something called a Witch’s Ladder: a knotted rope often runged with the dark feathers of crows, sparrows or such. Some darker thread than the red thread of salvation, the shadow-thread of which, the “crooked line”—I can see in my mind’s eye the bird-shadows each like a knot in a rope.
The image of sparrows “cast[ing] a crooked line on their way to invoke other omens” is particularly evocative. Idk why, but the image —and it could be because of the spooky season—conjures up something called a Witch’s Ladder: a knotted rope often runged with the dark feathers of crows, sparrows or such. Some darker thread than the red thread of salvation, the shadow-thread of which, the “crooked line”—I can see in my mind’s eye the bird-shadows each like a knot in a rope.
Thanks JM. Love it when you find the intersection of beauty and danger.