Her Flight

Her dreams soared high like a kite in full flight,

Colourful and bright, tail fluttering in delight.

Gusts tumbled her, carried her hither,

Pulled her thither, swept on in gay abandon.

Winged by wind billowing; now soaring, now diving,

Joyously high-fiving, sky and the capricious wind.

Doubts made her dance, swoop in an exhilarating twirl,

A horizontal pirouette propelling into the stratosphere.

She tugged impatiently, at the tether that diligently

Held her Earth-bound; this was the limit, she found.

She pulled and heaved against that umbilical cord;

Ambitions urged her to fly high, grab those dreams fleeting by.

She stilled for a while, looking back at her fetters;

Sky waited breathless, for her decision monumental.

Dreams transformed, ambition driven, she caught the slipstream,

Flung herself onward, to discover what fate had in store.

Tethers strained, tattered, lost; her fetters that were,

Watched her swiftly fly, a speck in the great blue sky.

Sadly they foretold of her foul end, crushed on forked branch or barbed fence,

Colours fading under merciless sun; bleeding away in a simple rain.

As do all stories, hers too met its destined conclusion;

But after an intoxicating flight quenched her thirsting resolution.

On her last breath, life images flashing,

Recalled whence life could’ve been long and safe.

Happily, smiling she died,

Loved ones by her side;

The Flight, for regrets, too well-valued;

Unfettered to new realms now she flew.

© Sumita Dutta Shaom, 2013