Weightless
By John Herlihy

Sorrow has its moment as if here to stay;
Misery enters our lives never to go away.
Depression covers us with a psychic shroud;
Patience has a vigilance to make us proud.
Consciousness lifts up the eyes of the mind;
Sleep takes us away from our daily grind.
True happiness waits quietly in the wings;
Joy gives us a taste of the bird that sings.
Ecstasy shows its face in a rare moment;
Sinning inspires us to seek our atonement.

Until one day we experience a new feeling
We never had before, enough to set us reeling.
A moment of weightlessness, poised to fly;
Wind under our wings, earth’s gravity to defy.
The arc of our lives suddenly reaches a peek,
A breathless pause to capture all we seek.
Space between heart beats, soundless, cold;
The bow pulled taut, the arrow ready, on hold.
On the horizon in a life that we call our own;
Poised to leap into the world of the unknown.

I often thought the unknown an unfriendly thing;
Weightless on the edge, I am ready to take wing.