Wounded Flight
by Odin Roark

So easy
The description
A handicap
Borne by many

Yet we lift off
From the gravity pinning us
To history
We may not have picked

To beliefs
Perhaps foisted upon us
To hopes
We know are just over the horizon

The flight is often clumsy
We are laughed at
Pitied
Often scorned

“Accept your place”
You hear
While struggling to reach
The plateau
The branch
A moment’s respite

Something they
The spectators of struggle
Hasten to ignore
A broken wing makes it difficult
But not impossible

After all
Less than perfection
Need not be the sound
Of one hand clapping

There is the possibility…

It is the triumphant vibration
Motion
Spirit
Of knowing one’s worth
Appreciating what little one may have
Gives the power
To make what one has not
Less disheartening