Flight

I think I was dreaming,

or maybe I was awake brooding,

But what I saw did rapture me so,

‘cos I imagined myself, I was this crow,

with a nest on this tree, tall and green,

flying up and above, many a thing I’d seen.

with the wind did I fly, sometimes against,

nothing weighing me down, without an angst,

white were the days, the nights light blue,

free as the bird, yonder I flew.

suddenly I was back, perched on the tree,

the eggs I lay, on the nest I see.

The bird had found its root, where it belonged,

for more adventure, more air I longed.

I think I was dreaming

or maybe I was awake brooding.

but now I was a leaf that fell

from that very tree, it was like a spell

that was cast on me, airy and bright,

down the mountainside, I took flight.

up and away with the breeze

farther it took me, wherever I’d please.

down the mountain into the sea I flew,

this was a dream, I wished it was true.

A sea so wide, the limits I couldn’t see,

I float on it, to the horizon I flee,

the seasons change, the winds get warm,

the leaf gets old, its edges deform.

it was time to settle, to go back,

to the Earth, to nature’s rack.

Now I am awake, brooding, not dreaming anymore,

like the bird on the tree, the dry leaf washed ashore,

no, not yet there’s still time,

to add some colour, to change the clime,

mind made up on the bed I lie,

to take to the sky, fly far and high.

– Narayanswamy