So, I want to share the second of my two poems that just won Honorable Mention in the 2023 Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition: "Chasing Kites".
For a long time, and still often now, my poems were in the first person, feeling and describing whatever emotion or situation from the inside out. This poem is one of my favorites (so far) because it was one of the first poems I actually saw myself from the outside in.
It was also a metric of growth for me to see how much of my past has been healed and how I feel so much love and compassion - for others, and also for myself - for that scrawny little freckle faced girl who felt so awkward and our of place in the world.
So here goes... Hope you like it!
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Chasing Kites
Bare feet slapping on firm damp shoreline,
Limbs loose in the elements,
Footprints disappearing in salty splashes
As I chase the tail end of a dream.
In my minds eye, I am more Coppertone and Kodak
Than scrawny, sunburnt, and freckle-faced.
I reach for the phoenix rising, lifting in flight
Into ever higher octaves of blue linen sky.
I am free and unfettered - just for the length
Of this energetic burst of wishful thinking.
Seduced by the calling, lilting breeze
You are transformed, separate, high above.
My innocent glee gives way to satisfaction
of successful launch of wings to wind,
Simulcast with hope expiring,
Fading into saddened grief of setting you free.
I can no longer feel you, chase you,
Desire both your touch and your escape into freedom.
I brush away a tear glistening in the golden hour,
My accomplishment diminished: “Time to go!”
And so I pack up my dreams until the sand calls
Once again for my soles wet with saliva of the sea.
I know this siren’s call well - luring and alluring -
Beckoning me home to a future less darkened by reality.
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