The Embrace

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Blind, my eyes open only when she takes the controls

Easing into the narrow seat

Wrapping her fingers around my exposed spine

 

Deaf, until she plugs herself in

And switches on the radio feed

The voices coming in a rush like an advancing tide

 

Numb, until her skin shivers in expectation

My own oscillating in reply

A tactile whisper coursing over the airframe

 

Mute, until she exhales, her expirations filling my own lungs.

My iron throat gasping for air,

My fiery perorations like dragon breath

 

Still, until the instant she pushes forward on my spine

Until the moment of liberation

Bound to the Earth until my wheels leave the ground

 

Free at last the horizon beckons

Like a familiar lover

Into its embrace I fall

 

A javelin hurled towards the roof of the world, the high vault of the sky

Towards that distant boundary line

On the other side of which stars shine unseen

 

Towards invisible constellations and limitless space 

I am the sweep of the eagle’s wing over the mountainside

I am the shadow that is never seen 

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