The Freedom of Broken Wings

I was born desiring
to soar,
to touch the sky,
to go beyond the seeming
and find the real -

which I thought was
far from here
far from now -

So I made wings for
myself:

Took some feathers from
a million birds
and some blades from
a thousand planes

I tossed and I turned
in endless dream
far into the day,
deep into the night
-
My eyes never failed
to see
a vision of me, flying,
soaring,
going far beyond
here and now

I wove my feathers
and hammered my metal.
I toiled and boiled
out in the Afrikan sun,
seeking wings -
making wings

I hammered my feathers
and wove my metal,

and
I beamed with delight
as I saw my metal become
feathers,
and my feathers become
metal -

I created wings!

then
I sat and remembered the sun
licking my face,
and the rain mixed with
my sweat:
pouring -
adding salt to a hungry Earth!

I sat and recalled the times when friends
would boo me,
and laugh at me,
and call my weaving futile.
Or woo me
into something else
more passive, more docile
more "worthwhile" -

or so they thought

Until they saw the wings
sparkling in the sun
looking at them
haunting them with deep desire
to fly,
to soar,
to serenade with the wind
and play with the birds

I remembered the toil
and I smiled as I saw them lust
for wings
I remembered the labor
and smiled,
for I had given birth
to wings

I had woven and hammered
and woven and hammered
and hammered and woven,

I had created!

I took my wings
to hide them from a bunch
of green-eyes

I locked them in my garage
and went to reward myself
with sweet sleep

on a bed of roses -
in the garden:

Aaahhhhhh!!!:

then I heard a clinking and a clanking
a dripping and a hammering
and a dropping

I arose from my scented bed
and rushed to see my sleeping beauty -
my love, my wings

I saw my wings,
I found them...
only, broken!

I watched in sacred silence
as tears washed my face
and fell to the ground,
the cursed garage ground
upon which my blighted wings
stood

I saw my feathers and my metal
I saw my weaving and my hammering
I saw my toiling and my reward
I saw it all that night -
I saw my wings:

broken!

The tears well up
now all I see is a fading blur

now I rest in
the agony of my sweet sweat
where I have learned a lesson
deeper than myself:

I can create!

I have discovered something
far bigger than me:

Love is here
Love is now
Truth is here
Truth is now

All I need is here
All I need is now

I take my broken wings
and fly -

to here and now