Fledglings

She looks from her window

Stares at the trees

Watching the leaves fall

Answering autumn’s call

Her gaze is broken

By a fledgling facing the wild

As it landed on a swinging branch

She thought herself a child

She combs through her hair

Wincing at the tugs

What happened to those days

Of recreational drugs

When did the house full of people

Become so empty of noise

Gone is the seductive drunkenness

Of all the girls and boys

She’s all grown up

She’s found her voice

She wonders how she got here

And how she made this choice

Was it really love

That swept her off her feet

It doesn’t feel like that now

Nothing here misses a beat

It’s not how she imagined

When you reach a certain age

She knows that fledglings can also

Spend their lives in a cage.

She knows that

No one ever sees

Young doves

Grow old.

©JMcN 2103