POETRY: Angel

Flying through the night

Injuring wings unable to support the burden of being

I am falling

An angel is perched on a broken branch

She alights

Our gazes lock

Our wingtips brush, the softest of feathers caress

Watery bliss

Her eyes twinkle

“Let’s soar!” I scream

Nodding, she takes off, upwards towards the full moon

I flap with all my might

Grinning like a fool into the rushing wind

Giving the illusion of lift

My eyes open and notice

The approaching rocks

I am still falling

Struggling in the dark wind

The horizon rises around me

Breaking branches

Snapping

Ripping flesh

The sharp hit of jagged stone

A final cold hard stop

Grounded

My wounded eye watches her

Glancing down upon me

As we share the shock, the disappointment, the moment

She gliders circles around my trembling carcass

Asking if I can recover

“I’m dying” I think. I feel. I know

But the wings begin to slip off

Another pair had been growing beneath the whole time

Silently

Beat but not beaten, I stand

Brushing off blood and mud, I run

Running, I stumbling, stumbling I run

Slowly the wind takes and the wings hold

Flapping slow, but effectively

I begin rising to her heights

My sights set

And finally arriving, resting back on a shared current

Anxious, excited, relieved, I bellow

“Follow me, let’s finish what we started.”

She smiles, but looks away

Our circles begin to widen, I look questioningly into her clear eyes

Feeling again for the first time, the night around us

She speaks without words

As her silhouette slowly begins fading into the darkness behind

And I know she is already gone