I never stood tall at five foot two
but I was proud and I was pretty enough
that I didn't think I'd have to try.

One day I fell
bruised and bleeding words
metaphors and metonymys and
"i love you too"s.

I was never one for running, but I
I could glide on the back of starbursts
and I sailed on the north winds
like they were all I had for a home.

I was never one for running, but I
I realized how much I needed to move
how freedom meant I had to leave
the footprints I'd embedded beside my sandcastles
meant I had to run into the water
and swim through storms.

My legs were broken one day
and my wings were ripped apart;
I could no longer hold sunsets in my eyes -
they leaked far too often and too much.

I decided you deserved somebody
who could dance
like mermaids in the old world
so I stood and I smiled and I
I let the skies be my music -
but I'm still healing,
so forgive me my baby steps -
I am walking to you.