Emergence

Desire, hope, anticipation of delirious play,
a tiger sits,
caught by eons of impatient searching.
Hungry eyes devouring the landscape, flicking tail tip,
hair trigger muscles coiled like a sleek rope
above a penetrating readiness.

I spring from the mouth of the cave.

Possibility, freedom, permission to move
at the pace of escaping wildness
bound by centuries of waiting.
For a sliver of affinity,
the hint of a reach,
a likely play mate,

and for the joy of the leap itself.

A lovely arc through the luminous air,
the delicious blur of passing objects,
a swift wind pulls against my warm fur.
Stretched wide, heart aching to split.
In that one instant careless of the descent
and fresh terrain that waits below,

I sail into electric potency.

Loving only the birth of flight,
bursting with the accumulated stacks
Of sweet and long held dreams.
Suspended above the tumble, roll and wrestle
of the inevitable landing.
Falling to earth,

together.

3/26/05