On the wing

Sometimes the unlived life within me

Pushes its way forward

As I struggle to breathe

Under the weight of a remembering

Of how early I got trapped

Inside a straight jacket too tight for me

And of how I twisted and turned trying to take it off

Until it tore into pieces

And I came to be

The rag tag wearer of lost dreams

Loosening skin

Now reminds me that time is on the wing

And there are

So many longings, hopes, wishes and wantings

Still held under the skin

Desiring to burst forward

But while my mind laboured in confusion

Knowing somewhere that

I was only half alive

And almost crumbling under weight of desires subsumed

Now as dusk approaches

And it all rises up within

All I can do

Is turn on the music and dance

As I greet the ending of another day

That comes with memories of those spring years

When all was before me

And I crashed

On the brink of life

So much to give

Those adolescent pregnant moments will not come again

In quite the same way

And so I must find a way to live and love now

What I could not then

Even though the mirror constantly reminds me

That life’s afternoon

Is so rapidly approaching

And time is on the wing