This morning,

the great bird-in-the-sky

dropped a feather

and when I picked it up

I saw

it looked like a leaf

which looked like a wing

which looked like like a broken shell

that reminded me of my heart.

So I held it up to the light

and as the sun burned bright

through, some thing deep in me

stirred too, broke free,

cut loose, took flight

and left all of it

far behind.

Free to roam -

I forgot my home

and soared in great blue arcs

cutting swathes of light

absorbed by oceans

and baptised by sky.

Nothing- it seemed - was too large to merge with.

Nothing - too small to belong to.

I had become - untethered.

And then, far below -

a woman,

her arms stretched wide

in wonder - or woe

(I still don’t know).

She sang right to me

and I glimpsed her clear heart

shaped

like a leaf

or a shell

or a wing.

And her singing reminded me

of who I ached to be:

both enduring and ephemeral

each - in equal measure.

An impossible possibility

a maddening joy

an end with no beginning

the kind of alone

that feels like together.

I swooped in close

circled her thrice

and let loose -

a feather.

©Liat Lev. May 2024