–because you have wingtips
sprouting from your shoe tips.”
She lived life with her eyes turned skyward…
and wondered if she would take flight,
if she could just run fast enough.
So that those nights
could never catch up.

Long ago, they told her,
“The world is yours,”
yet they never told her
a shattered tea cup
will always leak
regardless how much Elmer’s Glue you use.
They tried to protect her from what was hers
by keeping her too close.
Just remember,
they put the birds with the brightest wings
in the cages.

Recently, she was taught that if
she opened her ears wide enough,
the shells would whisper
the lullabies of the seas
Just for her,
But they must not know
everyone can get those same songs
on iTunes for 99¢.

However,
this is just a reminiscence of
a child who longed to taste flight,
but was weighed down
by what she left behind.
It wasn’t her intention to wear out her soles,
but her soul was ground beneath
the scrutiny of her own reflection

As she gazed to the moon,
she realized,
Finishing the end would require starting over;
But you can’t be rebirthed
until you have died,
So finally, the weights lifted,
And they conceded,
“You can fly–