What I wanted was both quick and forever. So many things fall in that category, tattoos and suicide being what pops in most people’s minds. Falling in love is another with a windfall of regrets. Destruction, creation – mirror images like quick and forever.
I wanted wings to fly. To soar and swoop. To sing among the stars and clouds.
But I don’t live in a fantasy world with magic or in the far-flung future with cyberwear options.
I breathed hard, once in and once out. Nodding to my trainers who flew me tandem a half-dozen times. I ran to the cliff-face and the hand glider caught an updraft. My feet left the ground.
Hundreds of feet below me, farmland stretched in a patchwork of browns, half-harvested in the October autumn cool. I drifted among the raptors. Behind me another colorful human-supporting kite launched.
(words 143, first published 10/16/2022)