Night Flights

By Cliff Lake

 

Night Flights

 

Circle logic robot menu on the phone,

No getting through, he’s left unknown.

A useless two hours without a break,

Left with sour stomach and headache.

 

He feared that gravity kept him down,

Heavied his head without a crown,

He feared he would never reach the clouds,

An unknown image among faceless crowds.

 

Lofty visions ended so soon,

Rising and popping, fragile balloons.

But nightly thoughts in his head dance,

Elevation, given half the chance.

 

To rise afar and away,

To escape toils and decay.

But morning comes and his head clears,

And so it goes throughout the years.

 

Then the daily grind pounds again,

That ceaseless crushing without end.

A murder, he thinks, of his dreams,

It’s only in his head he hears the screams.

 

But though the machine grates him every day,

It does not erode those dreams away.

Before and as he sleeps he flies,

High-flown plans that reach the skies.

 

Must he live always in dreamscape?

Can a new reality take shape?

Is this why his back remains unbowed?

Is this why in his eye the spark still shows?

 

It is hope that has borne his heavy freight.

It is hope that has kept his back this straight.

The broken surround him and wonder why,

He is so grounded, with his head so high.

 

He feared that gravity kept him down,

Heavied his head without a crown,

 But before and as he sleeps he flies,

High-flown plans that reach the skies.

 

Cliff Lake 8/12/2024

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024

Location: Wichita, KS, USA

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