Black Bird - SCP Foundation

A baby Jay was brought up

By a Magpie and a Rook

Their family was happy

If a glance was all you took

But Father Rook was changed

By all the strange things he had learned

And so one day he left the nest;

He never once returned

The Jay and Magpie, now alone,

Together, did their best

But if she wished to fly

The Jay would have to leave the nest.

She’d gained her father’s knowledge

And had soon picked up a trail

The Magpie begged her chick to stay

But all to no avail

For Jay had learned a Blackbird Queen

Lived hidden in the woods

She traded knowledge freely

To surrounding neighborhoods

It seemed she might know Father Rook

Or even where he was

She might even forego the “why”

If she knew the “because”

The Jay began her journey

Down a dark and dangerous path

Through snow and rain and hail she flew

And in the aftermath

She found that she had gotten

To a forest known by few

The nest was in a grove

Near where the Tree of Knowledge grew

She timidly approached it

But the only other bird

Was a Raven. Could she be the Queen?

That wasn’t what she’d heard.

The Raven spoke, “I sense you’ve come

For knowledge from the Tree”

Jay nodded. “Then it seems that I’m

The one you’ve come to see.”

The Jay was clearly startled

But she bowed before the Queen

And soon began her story

Of the things that she had seen

And finally the reason

She’d approached the Queen that day

The Queen thought for a while

And then nodded at the Jay

“The Rook lives in a castle

Just a cliff or two away

Your journey here took long

But this one only takes a day”

The Jay was grateful for her help

But still she was confused

She asked why she received it

And the Blackbird looked bemused

“Your father left you young,

Your mother raised you all alone

Your life has not been easy;

It reminds me of my own.”

The Queen gave one last warning

To the Jay before she flew

“The bird that you will find there

Will not be the one you knew.”

Jay rested up and flew out

As the sun began to rise

She finally saw the castle

When she stopped to close her eyes.

The castle was mechanical,

Yet somehow overgrown

It seemed so unfamiliar

From the Earth the Jay had known

She snuck past their defenses

But did not know where to look

She wandered and by happenstance

She ran into the Rook

She suddenly was speechless

And did not know what to think

Emotions filled the poor young Jay;

The Rook could only blink.

She wanted to be happy,

But instead was hurt and mad

The bird that she had found

He could not truly be her dad

And yet it clearly was him

Standing still before the Jay

She finally cried “How could you?”

But he had nothing to say.

She yelled at him and pleaded, too

But to her great surprise

There was no spark of anything

Behind his dead black eyes

‘Twas then the Jay remembered

The wise words of the Queen

Her Father was no Rook,

He was a cog in a machine.

Emboldened by this knowledge

And embittered by it too

She realized she had found the Rook

But not the one she knew

Emotionless, the Rook looked down

Upon the tearful Jay

She looked up and bid him farewell

With that, she flew away.

But as the Rook watched after her

He sensed something inside

And though he knew it could not be

It almost felt like pride

The world had held Jay down

But now she soared into the air

Although she’d reached the hidden grove

Queen Blackbird was not there

So Jay guarded the trees

And all the knowledge in between

Years after she arrived there

She proclaimed herself the Queen

And finally as for the title

Tall Queen Blackbird took

She’d never be a Raven

For her father was a Rook