Fly United

Margaret Atwood – Flying Inside Your Own Body

 

Your lungs fill & spread themselves,
wings of pink blood, and your bones
empty themselves and become hollow.
When you breathe in you’ll lift like a balloon
and your heart is light too & huge,
beating with pure joy, pure helium.
The sun’s white winds blow through you,
there’s nothing above you,
you see the earth now as an oval jewel,
radiant & seablue with love.
It’s only in dreams you can do this.
Waking, your heart is a shaken fist,
a fine dust clogs the air you breathe in;
the sun’s a hot copper weight pressing straight
down on the think pink rind of your skull.
It’s always the moment just before gunshot.
You try & try to rise but you cannot. 

11 thoughts on “Fly United

  1. This is spectacular eddie. I am drawn to both the photo and poem. I have many many flying dreams and have all my life. I not only find peace in the colors here, but excitement. At any moment they could all rise as one in a plethora of nasal honking and flapping wings…..and I would stand in the middle of it, eyes closed as their wings brushed my face and body. I would absorb the kinetic energy of their collective flight…and possibly follow.
    Thank you for such beauty my dear friend.
    Robin

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