i could bust this cage, if you...

... if you'd teach me how to fly
-taylor sorensen

today, it seemed i caught the slightest taste of freedom, a kind that i have never quite known or imagined before...

stretch out these finger-feathers
in a space too small
this wire and wicker
perhaps less substantial than
seemed so in ages past:
twistable
allowing the creation - not
of something new, no
but of a way through the tangle of old
an opening
enough to struggle, and
finally slip through
to learn anew this creature
in the wide and wild
to fall
into a glide
to feel joy in every muscle
to sing with purpose, without fear
to dance across the sky

i will yet sing. and perhaps, one of these days, i may even be persuaded (but no, not by you, dear friend) to dance again.