There was a Twitter thread of “depluralize a film”, example “Jaw” and a clever person called Gwendolyn Ann Smith thought outside the box and said “Crow on the Orient Express” because of “a murder of crows” and then I had to run with that, and here it is.
Crow finds himself on a train
Rushing forward through night,
Rushing north, rushing north and west,
Bright lit train through dark night
Tinkling crystal, silver, swishing velvet, silk,
And the smell of death.
Crow says “Once I sat on a tree branch
And watched a dead knight
Stared blindly up at bright sky
While his murderer rushed away north
As fast as his horse could carry him.
This train is faster but
Nobody can outrun death.”
Crow cocks his head, hops two steps,
As train slows to a stop in snowy night,
“What are they trying to outrun?
Everyone here wears murderers’ silks.
Snow is white, blood is very red.
There seems to have been a sudden death.”
Crow spreads his wings, dark against paling sky,
The train has reached east for morning,
“This smells of death. Everyone was in on it.
Nobody is innocent here,
Least of all the dead man.
This is death, yes, but what is justice?
When do I get to eat their eyes?”
20th September 2022, Florence
