The Omen

First one, then another, and then in twos and threes they came and landed in the trees. Then dozens more until the trees turned black from their numbers. Then scores came and filled the trees 'til the branches bent low under their weight. Then hundreds more arrived, not with precision like starlings but drifting effortlessly like gulls, until it seemed the heavens could hold no more. A great churning sky of birds, each one circling alone as if afraid to know its brothers. And then ... in a moment ... all were gone.