Paper Dreams

I remember...the wind -
It's phantom fingers
Running through my hair,
Silk caressing my cheeks.

I remember...the sky -
Clouds chasing each other,
across a sweeping canvass
of the palest indigo.

I remember...the laughter -
The tinkling clarity
Of children's mirth,
Yet untouched by despair.

I remember...my kite -
Bits of colored parchment and bamboo,
Bound together by nothing but string,
Rice paste and the faith in dreams.

I remember...as it soared -
Buffetted by unseen hands,
An ungainly, misshapen bird,
Marring heaven's blue expanse.

I remember...the battle of wills -
As the surging currents of the wind,
Tried to wrestle the paper sails
Away from my untried hands.

But youthful stubborness and
the purest faith held it aloft,
Though I've but anchored it,
With the slenderest of strings.

And the vanquished wind carried
The echoes of my laughter,
Across rolling hills and verdant plains,
Up to the sky, to fuel my paper sails...

I remember...each time my aging eyes -
Now bleak with desolation and despair,
Tracks a kite's course across the heavens,
Or when I hear the echo of children's laughter.

And as I remember,
The paper dreams inside me unfurl,
To soar upon the currents of memory...