song into your collarbone

song into your collarbone

when you become wing

i will return

right here

to your shoulder

i will return

small as i am

to your shoulders

when you fly

small as i am

when you are infinite

when you fly

i will be here

when you are infinite

my open mouth

i will be here

to sing this song

my open mouth

right here

to sing this song

when you become

wing

My father’s favorite metaphor is the butterfly. All Spring he sends them as messengers to remind me: “The whole point is transformation.” I still rage against the way cancer transformed my fathers bones into dust. I still resist who I’m becoming, I cling to who I thought I was. This time of year, close to our birthdays I forget our birthdays are coming. I protect myself from the signs everywhere singing “REBIRTH in T-6 days.” But in this poem, this remembered song, that I sang in the first month of this life into the archive of my father’s shoulder comes back to me to take me into flight. One month old witness to so much transformation my lungs had learned how to breathe air, my eyes were taking in the light, held not in the orb of womb but in the hinges of adult arms, everything changed. Now I remember my capacity to change. My father who was one place is now everywhere. The universe is teaching me to fly.

P.S. What does your child self want you to remember? Inner Child Summer School is in session! Sign up here.

P.P.S. My every day writing practice shapes my days into vessels for generations of love. If you want support with your own daily creative practice, I’d love to be part of your journey. Videos, poem prompts, meditations and more are here for you in the Stardust and Salt Daily Creative Practice Intensive.