Ask a flightless bird

To fly

And she will look at you

With perplexed eye

 

“How can you expect me

To fly

When I am told

I can not

Or don’t try?”

 

Her wings are twigs

Skinny and small

Always outstretched

Always reaching

 

Sparkling eyes

Always looking

Up at the skies

To all her soaring friends

That lend her their feathers

 

But she is bound

To her tethers

 

Until one day

She meets another

Flightless bird

 

But he is not bound, no

He does not fly either

 

He walks

 

“Why do you walk? Do you not wish to fly?”

She wonders

 

He walks to her

Places his hand on her tethers

And replies:

 

“I was not made to fly

So I do not fly

I was made to walk and so

Walk I do”

 

She watched as he

Walked and walked

Until she could not see him

Anymore

 

Maybe

 

Maybe…

 

This flightless featherless bird

Was no bird at all

 

She looked at her wings

And found strong arms

With hands made for

 

Creating

Painting

Redrawing the world that

She believed was the only world

She could belong in

 

Her chains were not chains

Merely legs that bound her to the earth

Allowing her to run

For as long and as far

As she was willing to go

 

For she found she was human

Not the bird she was trying to be

And

Becoming human

Was who she was meant to be