Simple.
Under one wing you take the thousand thousand
thuds of your heart, under the other
a lifetime paying taxes to the wind –
and clench.
Where there was flibbertigibbetry of feather, now
the quick of existence in a fist.
Where there was phrase, phrase, nickel-and-diming it to stay
one breath ahead, now
you take the full stop in your teeth
the plumb bob
the bomb.
Where there were unnumbered paths of air, now
the one shaft of your plunge, whose walls
are the shrieks of your old nemesis, gravity
bursting into bloom.