The Gray Blanket
The clouds covered the sky, a gray blanket over the Earth. A light breeze blew beneath the blanket, sending gray leaves and gray dust skidding across the gray pavement. Gray buildings lined the streets. Gray people strolled dully along the sidewalk, hands in their pockets, eyes to the floor. It was quiet.
Something broke the long, hanging silence that lay covered by the blanket, snuggled up in the cold air. The tree stood leafless over the gray gravel of the gray sidewalk, one of its roots breaking through the gray concrete. On a tall branch, sat a crow, endlessly squawking into the dull void before it. People glanced up at the bird as they slowly passed by. In a world of gray, the crow was the most colorful thing around. Pitch. Black. The crow’s feathers were a black hole, absorbing whatever unlucky photon crossed its ungodly path. Its eyes were a quiet gold, piercing the skin with a glance.
The crow had no sense of its own purpose and in the grand scheme of things, really had no purpose at all. But then again, neither did the gray people walking below it, did they? If anything, this crow had more of a purpose than the silent, gray people. It brought some sense of life into the world: sound, color, a perhaps less grounded perspective. What did the people bring?
The rain fell lightly at first. The cool water floated softly down to the gray world below. Instinctively, the crow knew to fly. It took off, spreading its dark, majestic wings above the empty canvas below. The bird kept continued to rise, the gray world beneath it shrinking into itself, slowly being devoured. Soaring ever higher, the crow pierced the gray shroud.
It was bright outside, perhaps for the very first time. The sun’s ray cast a white glow across the blue sky. Below the crow lied a puffy, white duvet. Even the greatest of insomniacs would have no problem drifting into dreams of rolling green hills and pink and orange and yellow flowers. It was a shame the gray people couldn't see it...
Again, here's some older work of mine, I think also from around 2016? If not 2015.