Hello my friends
so nice you visit
bouncing
strutting round me
preening
stretching out
in a flutter
of feathered wings
your flits
and chirps
and twitters
and coos
bring this old man
great joy
your vitality
soothes my soul
me
here grounded
hobbled
but for a few steps
painful steps
with cane always in hand
mostly confined
to my favorite chair
with my needles
and vials
and constant
bloody finger pricks
glucose test strips
my mechanics of survival
at every waking
every sleeping
and every meal
pricked
and punctured
6 times total
every day
but also
my daily joy
with my favorite friends
when you visit
I know my feeding you
is your prime motivator
but you kindly linger
moving easy and gentle
‘round me
close
know for certain
my feathered friends
this lonely old man
appreciates it
greatly
I love you for it
birds
but I’ll tell you a secret
I want so to fly
it’s my fantasy
my freedom dream
arms spread straight out
feeling the lift
and to feel
the thrill of the swoop
caught up in my freedom dream
to pierce through the clouds
speeding
like a laser beam
feel the wind
ruffle my feathers
zoom high — above rooftops
to be weightless
to feel no stress
so high — above rooftops
riding the thermals
as all my fear stops
swept up in happiness
so much I’d see
I’d feel so free
soaring in giddiness
oh — could I but glide
through the clouds
like you do
birds
in free flight
lifted on mighty thermals
no longer earthbound
not a captive of gravity
relieved of anxiety
free of my agonies
but I am captive
to my failing heart
to my cane
to my chair
to my bloody pricks
of my fingertips
to my needles
so many many needles
but each day
when you leave me
it is truly thrilling
to experienc you
flap your wings
lift
and fly off to freedom
sometimes
I envy you your freedom
I envy you your feathers
and your hollow bones
yes
I envy you
but I love you
I wish I were you
so fly
fly my friends
fly
my heart is with you
*
rob kistner © 2023
Poetry at: The Sunday Muse