Once you arched across
The horizon of blue and green
Your hair coming loose
Across your face and back.
Now, you smile, self-consciously
At the empty seats,
Flushing at the memory
Of dying claps and sea of faces
Holding their breath
At a tricky pirouette.
How you flew across the arc lights
Tracing beam to beam,
In endless possibilities,
And blundering haste.
Then you collapsed into a little ball
Of lace and mesh,
Of trapped screams and limp dreams.
Will you rise once more?
Hook your legs
Around my shoulder
And fly fearless
Into a focussed shard of light
Rushing past the humdrum
Of claps and gasps.
When you swim down this time,
No longer crashing
Into crutches and plates
No longer sinking
Into my coward graces.
When you swim down,
This time,
To a faithful heart
That you may not hear
In all the thundering praise.
So, if you pause,
This time,
Before you fly to the stars
I will have paused too,
Crumbling with you
Into countless broken pieces.
