Original Photo by Gregory “Slobirdr” Smith

forgotten.wings.

a free verse poem

waddling in the tundra
the penguin pauses
a hot-blooded heart
pounding in the frozen world

why, oh why,
a purposeful life
in this barren land

sliding, slinking, skidding
in the snow
it dares dream of
soaring in the sky

why, oh why,
the flightless wings
on this featherless body

legend speaks of a phoenix
rising from burnt ashes
but the cold does not burn

it bites

unrelenting in its grip
grounding the penguin
the passion the purpose
in this bleak barrenness