The woman had the strength of hawk,
thick clay from the river bank in her feet. Her arms
reached to the sky, powerful and purposeful,
stretching out like wings
while her heart flew high above
hovered for a moment
felt the possibility
of all that stirred below
then returned to her body
enlivened by light and wind’s gift of air.
She traveled this way often
to sense what could not be seen
from earth: the wisdom of the wide-eyed view
beyond her mind’s room
of limits and limitations.
Strengthened by the richness
of the river’s smooth clay,
her feet began to transform into talons
with the power to sustain her, for she knew
that storms would come
strip trees bare
no place for her to land
gain perspective on prey—
so she befriended the meadows,
the marshes, the ponds, the sea.
Her heart dreamt of focused flights
catching cod and carp
snatching shad and salmon
clenched claws giving way to bitter death
sweet survival. She looked up,
saw the hairs on her arms lengthening
sprouting wasps of thin feathers
that linked together forming
oblong pins, streamlined for flight.
She was readying for her evolution,
beyond earth’s gravity,
discover a path through boundless sky,
what only her heart had seen and felt.
The vast and restless wind above
was calling her to a time
when women soared as eagles
sang out in open air
found their place among trees
along rivers, above meadows,
a time for her to nurture
her fast beating heart
that knew all along
she was meant
to fly.
Roxanne Bogart
Roxanne E. Bogart is a wildlife biologist and writer, whose poems have appeared in The Tiny Seed Literary Journal, The Burlington Poetry Journal, The Silkworm, and Poetry Quarterly. Her first full-length book of poetry is entitled All That Sustains, published by Off the Common Books. She is a member of the International League of Conservation Writers, the Academy of American Poets, Straw Dog Writers Guild, and the Florence Poets Society, and lives in Amherst, MA with her family. Visit Roxannebogart.com to order her book.
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