My ribs are not a cage
Built to contain
This fluttering beat of wings
A captive could never sing
Anything
Like I’m hearing

Your ribs are not a cage
Not like bars to contain
But a xylophone
Of your bones
To play along
With my birdsong

Distance
Does not have to be
Division
I keep striving toward you
Like a moth to the moon
Like every winged thing
Refusing to be imprisoned
When gravity clings

The wings within my chest beat on
Propelling me to flight and song
Run my hand over the memory of your bones
So like and so unlike my own
And though our bones are not light
Enough for us to take flight
Wings within me
Sings within me
To fly in the face of gravity
To defy what captures me

But my limbs are not made
To fly away
My heartwings beat over and over
And the bone white moon never gets closer
Now knowing what a caged bird sings
Flight needs freedom, not just wings