Kite and shadow

And so another day came so brightly,

the yellow sun rose high and warm,

the winds blew variable and lightly -

and I stepped out onto my front porch, my feet so bare,

the sky was so blue,

the true color of the clear, perfectly congenial air.

And as I watched and I waited

I could think of nothing quite better than flying a kite.

And since there was no one else around,

I went ahead and imagined someone -

a whimsical someone like you - to go fly a kite with me.

And so I carelessly imagined you, only you,

waiting expectantly for me at Central field.

You might be smiling as I unfurled my colorful kite

and then laughing at me as I untangled the line.

And then there would be nothing more for us to say

as we watched and we waited.

And then, and only then,

when I finally held my kite aloft, our breaths bated,

our eyes meeting and then quickly looking away,

at that moment there would finally and truly be nothing more

that two human beings could possibly do –

but hope.

So I closed my eyes ever so slightly,

the sun, the wind, the forgotten dripping of rain,

even those bygone tears fell so far out of time and mind -

and then I simply let go of reality with the freshening of the wind

and I quickly became the lively, lifting kite.

Your memory held tight the line, and love flew with bright nylon colors.

The ascending kite flew still higher, catching the wind, letting it go,

fluttering, flapping, streamers streaming -

the kite soaring with rhymes and reasons only the wind could secretly know.

And if I became the kite in the sky,

my imaginary you became the shadow.

And then in time we magically switched places.

And then it was I, bewitched, laughing and dancing, across the soft green grass,

the grass green grass so softly yielding beneath my feet

as I so carefree and carelessly ran underneath the bright colored kite

flying up in the sky blue sky so high.

And as I looked up, my eyes opened up so very wide and then they closed again.

I remembered the plans and promises that no one had ever had made

for this one unexpectedly glorious day.

All of our imagined dreams dreamt and undreamt so long and almost forever ago -

our unspoken hopes for loves both great and small

and perhaps only some few cares recalled,

those of no more moment

than a kite in a sky blue sky.

And then perhaps and yet again perhaps -

perhaps I hadn’t imagined you at all.

Only wishing that you were with me almost made it so –

but then you and I would only ever finally touch when

heaven and earth would truly meet.

Perhaps we might simply be waiting together, apart,

with only the wind whispering dying and undying words,

words that I might hear but never understand.

And there might nothing more that two human beings could possibly say.

But today – this moment only - is about the colored nylon kite –

soaring, swooping, dipping, looping, pulling against the string –

and the laughing.

And so, I will say this to you, my imaginary and truly love:

there have been some days past and there will be  more days yet to come

and perhaps we have yet to meet the day -

that one day when you, my heart, will hold a kite aloft on an open field

and I will hold the line

and then the wind will laugh and the sun will touch our faces

and love will fly

and our own imagined embraces will come true

and then finally the sailing kite and her shadow

will together so lightly touch the earth.

**
Click on the first photo and then right arrow to quickly view the kite flying sequence.