my mother arms want to hold you close
my angel arms want you to fly
so cautious in these daedalus dreams
i could not bear it if you burned
but you will never be confined in a maze of my making
soar in the currents, catch the updrafts
and fly
warmed by rays and cooled by winds
fly, as far as far as you can,
but not too high child, not too close to the sun
nor too close to weighty spray of the sea

though your dreams may carry you beyond the stars
where i once dreamed of flying
in dreams of lightness and distant vision
i would fly above trees long since felled
their needles now thatching  paths
becoming the very ground where i came to walk

dawn had barely broken the horizon when i first soared
now shadows fall on the other side of day
the very memory of flight wavered unreal
believing i had never flown
unable to even remember when i became grounded in reason
with clipped wings and psychic cages
and expectations as plain and practical as the hills i walked
i never turned my face to the sky with open arms
to capture the warmth of life and day
until i felt the flutter of your wings inside me
and i soared