If only I had wings, I could rise above
Get out from under this sky that weighs on me heavily.
Sometimes I find it difficult to breathe when
Freedom feels too precious, too Paris,
Like a dream of falling only to wake
In the middlenight and look out the window
And see the snow gently fade to rain
Like the book that shows you how
To live up to your promises and be a man,
Shows you how to love again.
If only I had wings, I might smile, while I
Met people on the street, hiding my wings under
A sweatshirt and a baggy overcoat.
The ground could say goodbye to my feet, as I
Soar up through the clouds that hide stars
During Day.
I think I must have been a bird in a past life,
With a brain the size of a fingernail, and feathers.
I would need more postage to send myself hatemail.
But every season I could shed the loathing
I have for myself. Maybe that is why
I am a man now. With opposable thumbs
I can weild a knife and cut
Away the bitterness from my heart
That clogs my spirit's circulation like sausage grease, a
Disturbing Fate.
Maybe that is why my heart is heavy,
I have always been more concerned with How
While sadness filled me slowly,
Like water from a broken dam filling a valley...
And I am full now, but still oddly hollow,
Whatever threshold I had has been reached.
My bowed head casts a long shadow along the beach
And I ache, as with hunger at lunchtime on Sunday
When the sermon is still being preached.
I have asked politely for the world to share
When the world does not even know how to care.
I know this.
I have known this all along, but still I wish
For a narrow way through the
Darkening Gate.
If only I had wings I could walk
Among men with my comfortable secret,
Flight, my sacred consort, guiding me higher,
Past the place where Eagles cry and dive,
And I would be the one who wondered Why
My past cannot be changed. Though I
Stretch and pull and push, not one second or minute,
Day or hour can be rearranged. All the more
Reason to walk among men, follow the strangers to the gate.
Walking, something between standing and running,
Because I do not want to be late, and I cannot wait.
The house becomes a home becomes a house again
When terrified tenants are on the outside looking in,
Defining Wait.
Easy to see why the well is full of wishes and
Nickels and pennies. I fall asleep waiting for
My wishes to come true. Waiting for someone to
Tell me what to do. I grow old waiting for friends to
Show, when their absence is all I have ever known.
Once my search took me to a hundred churches
Looking for answers to unasked questions,
Healing for my hurts:
catcalls for short skirts that flare at the waist,
Daring Great.
If only I had wings, I could fly
Eyes burning with cold
Hair blowing in the wind. And
If you let some of my sins slide, I just
Might win heaven,
And ride my horse and carry my sword
Like Teddy Roosevelt and his rough riders,
Ready to die, just give the word,
Just give me the world...
I expect no less for daring greatly
Having been so blessed lately.
12.18.2001