Above the bustle of city streets, on the metal weaves of high roofs and glass canopies, you can see motionless dark silhouettes. Crows sit high, their heads thrown back to the gloomy sky, and turn their penetrating gaze down, to where life is raging. They seem not just birds, but eternal sentinels, frozen on the border between the everyday world of people and some other, invisible dimension. From their height, they silently observe our every step.
The human world seems to them an endless anthill, where creatures are constantly running somewhere, worried about petty worries and temporary passions. Crows watch this movement with deep calm. In their feathers, black as night, the reflections of city lights are reflected, and in their eyes lies the knowledge of many generations. These birds have seen civilizations rise and fall, and the current human hustle and bustle arouses only a dull curiosity in them. They know the value of time and understand that most of the things that the living so passionately pursue will eventually turn to ashes and dust.
Sometimes one of the sentinels spreads his wings, makes a smooth circle above the heads of passers-by, and returns to his post again. This flight resembles a silent reminder that someone is always watching us. People below rarely raise their heads, completely immersed in their phone screens or their own thoughts. They do not notice these wise observers, who study human nature better than anyone. Ravens see our joys, hidden tears, small betrayals and grand displays of nobility.
There is no sinister intention or threat in this silent contemplation. Ravens are simply fulfilling the role assigned to them by nature itself or the myths of antiquity. They remain living witnesses to our fragility and transience. As the day fades and the city plunges into twilight, the dark silhouettes on the rooftops merge with the shadows of the night. They fall asleep with the first stars, only to open their eyes again tomorrow and continue their endless surveillance of the strange, chaotic world of the living.
