Wright

Passing thoughts

I recall learning
about the ones who were first
to take winged flight
soaring skyward on their shaky design.

It maddened me
to think something so profoundly audacious
could possibly yield
so beautiful an advance.

I know myself
well enough to realize
that I would have been there
among the gathered throngs at Kitty Hawk
so certain to see some spectacular disaster
befall the ones who thought themselves
bold enough to grasp
that incredible power.

And what would the reward have been, then
for my proud and professional skepticism
for my rapid and ready willingness
to turn other’s loss
into my own gain?

Centuries of daily, floating reminders
high-elevation billboards
advertising the supreme narrowness
of my mind.

*****

We were children, when we met
and I think that helped.

If we had been wiser
to the depth and breadth of the chasm between us
and its yawning drop to pain below
Would we ever have jumped
so fully
so wildly
across that gap?

And falling rapidly in our tangled arms
would we have feared the approaching floor
if we’d felt it before?
If we had had a chance
to give our hearts away
and have them handed back
in pieces
complete with “no thank you” notes
of varying politeness
would we still have loved
so boldly?

A decade
a lifetime
built on the foundation we poured
in our fleeting and careless youth.
If you ask me now
it never should have worked.

*****

Today
Looking skyward
at those impossible machines
Looking downward
at that happy-heavy ring
adorning my left hand
I am reminded twice over
how small the world would be
if it obeyed me.