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 bird of fire - a caution by Rg Gregory 
						the dream of the white bird flyingoffers a freedom as tasty as nectar
 how our lips purse to the goddess’s pap
 at the want of such swoops through the air
 
 to be rid of the drag on our legs
 the sloshing through drudgery and mire
 the daily entangling with bramble
 the hurt of our hair caught in barbs
 
 when there in the bowl of our eye
 that milky-white shaft through the sun
 pierces old canopies revealing
 heights that have never been deemed
 
 then to be up and away forgetting
 icarus has been there before us
 white heat is the worst of all fires
 we’re dust before the dream’s gone cold
 
 there’s no bird doesn’t need its tree
 with its leaden roots buried in earth
 and the earth needs its water - all
 things that fly with their fine-pointed rage
 
 must have cool fruits to come down to
 before ecstasy and soaring can yield
 the unimaginable answers sustaining
 the longings all born are bequeathed
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