A Poem a Day (647): NaPoWriMo Day 18 - The eagle

 
Day 18 
 
Prompt: we’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which the speaker expresses the desire to be someone or something else and explains why. Two possible models for you: Natasha Rao’s In my next life let me be a tomato and Randall Jarrell’s The Woman at the Washington Zoo. www.napowrimo.net

 
The eagle
 
You think you covet nothing,
that while you may not be enough,
this is you, the only breath you know,
born from that lone child in the mirror
who once stared quizzically back at you,
and you can heal, see it through,

but there’s a sharp cliff edge inside,
a rip, a tear. It shouldn’t be there.
Sometimes it bends. Sometimes it grows.
Stagnation is not a natural way to be.
 
We watch the eagle from the ground,
wings outstretched, a plane in spiral,
swift, sure, existence quantified.
A true power in its escape into the blue,
into the still, the lightness of pure air,
a kaleidoscope opening inside into out.
 
He dives on the updraft, skates almost,
spying humans living like specks of dust.
The mighty hunter, escape artist, swift
in his pursuit of truth. We stand below,
heads craned to the sky. Unseeing us,
he soars up into the arms of cirrus.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, April 18, 2024