Metal birds

Slice through oxygen,

Taking your breath away,

Taking you far away.

For as young as I can remember

Metal wings brought me to you,

And took me away.

Their winged edges so sharp

You wouldn’t feel a cut

But notice later, your heart

Was sliced.

Torn between two places,

Not knowing which is home

And which is fabricated.

Steel wings naively gliding along

Until years later.

When the plane finally lands

And you get a bigger picture.

Grounded with a head still stuck

In the clouds, floating between

Fragmented memories,

Their shards punching through me;

Sea urchins and porcupines in envy,

Struggling to understand

How we took off in a big metal machine

The size of a whale,

As if my brain is under the ocean

Frantically questioning if this is real.

But it is. And metal can fly.

Proving that the weight

Of these memories

Shouldn’t be a problem to me.

-I’ll try and let them fly by.