When We Had Wings

     I lost my words for a time, and most of the humor that has sustained me through life. I nearly lost my son in September and, somehow, my ability to write also. My feelings were bigger than my words. But I had one more farewell left in me for McKenzie, the granddaughter I lost when my son and her mother broke up. I wrote it in October and finally I am ready to post it. Perhaps this is the last.

   When We Had Wings

When the spring was raw and new

and, like today, the cool winds blew,

my granddaughter and I

watched birds that wheeled across the sky,

wondering what makes them flee

capriciously from tree to tree.

We had wings and time did not,

or so I thought.

Now fall has come and turning leaves

ride like birds upon the breeze.

From the comfort of my home

I view the circling birds alone.

The trees we watched across the road

     still gladly bear their lively load,

as I would, could she come to me—

my MacKenzie.

Unstoppable as wind, thief-time

eventually takes all that’s mine.

But it cannot steal from me

the comfort of your memory.

When your mother went away

I had no power to let you stay.

I watch the birds and think of springs

when we had wings.