Overhead & Overheard

Eagle flying in the air
all alone, always there
ever circling
what do you see on the ground
cold, dark, dank, brown
circling, ever circling

Over treetops, over farms
lying fallow – is it flight keeps you alive?
time long gone I’d lay
watching as you worked the currents
finally running in for the kill
I too rode the winds
lined up, ran in for the kill

Do you grow weary of flight
or just the kill?

Gazing out my window
into grey skies – earthbound now
the engine of my youth run down, I
think about the small yellow cub
that first bore me into the skies, when
I reached but for a moment and touched heaven

When did living to fly become
flying to live, joy turn to task
touching heaven become creating a hell

Through the window I yet
can feel the quickening pulse
how does one describe that
which is too large for the heart to hold?

No more
to strap on
sonic wings of gold
explode and scream into the sky
winter’s quiet is for gentler things
to go aloft by degrees – perhaps to
once more reach out for heaven and
slip loose of earth before they know I’m gone