Swingset Epiphany

i climbed on as a child

with small slick fingers

gripping the metal chain 

and toe-tips just grazing

the dusty layers of ground 

that held my size 4 footprints

the wide wooden seat

was like a shelf

the type my mother hid 

candied pills on so i couldnt reach

but there i was

firmly planted on it and braced

to battle gravity

and with a stretching of my fragile legs

i pounded my way down the worn runway

and exploded into the air

with only the creaking chains

to keep me linked in some small way

to the faraway earth

that blurred beneath me while the air

whipped around me

pushing and pulling and screaming and roaring

its own windy song around me

and i was hurtling forward and upward

just on the edge of breaking the boundary

between today and tomorrow

when with a resounding snap

gravity pulled on my delicate self 

and swept me back down through the dust

in a squealing free fall that left all the breath 

in my tissue thick lungs

scattered across the universe

as i sped down back to land

but the sky had a hold on me too

yanking me back up

in a smooth practiced grip

as if i was the end result of years of practice

that i was a battle it was intent to win

and i was soaring again

letting glee whip around me

while victory and freedom and fear

collided in my crayola coloured brain

and escaped thrumming through my tongue

as i reached for words i didnt know 

to explain this wrenching joy

until earth claimed me back again

and i was sucked towards the solid vortex

of something like reality

and fought to rise again

i was only a child

when i learned what love felt like