“Spreading Wings” for What Do You See> Aug 4, 2025

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Spreading Wings

Animals’ phases allow them to dare
to turn into something more special and rare.
Tadpoles swim landwards, developing legs.
Pupae to butterflies, chickens from eggs.

Rain falls and water runs west to the sea.
We try to go with it, my sister and me.
With leaves for our sails and vine pods for our ships,
what we wish for remains behind eyelids and lips.

The gutters are swollen and culverts are full.
We harness our boats, and we push and we pull.
But still they escape––rush away on their own.
I envy their future–unfettered, unknown.

In faraway places, I thought I’d be free
to discover new parts I was fated to be;
so I went after life like a kid at a fair,
from her carousel horse, reaching out through the air.

I could not resist the chance of surprise––
to  grab the brass ring and capture the prize.
And yes, I did travel and how I did roam.
Life got faster the farther I wandered from home.

Now I’ve been through the phases from child to wife.
I’ve traveled and struggled and had a free life.
I’ve been on large vessels for months at a time,
and on most of my travels, I’ve had a good time.

If I’d known that the slow times were not going to last,
I would not have hoped for my time to go fast.
For now when the ending comes faster and faster,
The pace of my life is just courting disaster.

Though other seas beckon, my boat is well tethered.
My new dreams are tamer, my old dreams well weathered.
Now that I can go anywhere, do many things,
I wish for more time just to fold up my wings.

 

for Sadje’s What Do You See? prompt., Image by Hirzul Maulana. poem by Judy.

20 thoughts on ““Spreading Wings” for What Do You See> Aug 4, 2025”

  1. Martha Kennedy's avatarMartha Kennedy

    I get this. I don’t leave the San Luis Valley. I figure if I learned anything from wandering and loving and making mistakes and fighting for things it’s that I have no idea what’s going on and it might take some time to see. Maybe that’s what we get; I sense that is the prize, the ability to BE somewhere and someone. Just that.

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      1. pensitivity101's avatarpensitivity101

        Time is going a lot faster than I imagined and it is so nice to have a ‘lazy day’, though they are few and far between. We miss our days on the boat. Life was simplistic and relaxed, being on the river offering a sense of tranquillity and peace you can never find in a town or even a quiet village.
        Hubby will be 70 in a few months, and I’ll be 70 next May. It seems only yesterday I was baking a cake for his 40th. We’ve had some fun in those 30 years, heartaches too, but pulled through it all together.

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  8. Eilene Lyon's avatarEilene Lyon

    I totally get this, Judy. Wonderful poem! Because I grew up an Army brat, I was happy to settle down. Still traveled a lot, but slowing down at that. I really, really like being at home!

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