Paper Wings and Bandaged Dolls

 

In pews of pine, where harmonies ascend,

Our youthful voices intertwined, transcend.

Your eyes, twin sapphires, caught my whispered glance,

A nurse's touch, a pilot's daring chance.

We carved our dreams in summer's dappled light,

Your bandaged dolls, my paper wings in flight.

I'd soar the clouds, you'd mend the world's despair,

Two fragile stars, a whispered, destined pair.

Then life unwound, a twisting, tangled skein,

My silver wings took me through sun and rain.

Foreign skies, a blur of endless blue,

While you, dear heart, in white, a vision true.

One sterile day, beneath the doctor's sign,

My pulse quickened, your name, a whispered chime.

White coat and chart, a stethoscope's soft sigh,

But patients filled the silence, dreams could not fly.

Stolen glances, fleeting smiles between,

A brush with fate, a bittersweet unseen.

The doctor's call, a hurried, harried beat,

Just time for one last smile, bittersweet.

Now taxi lights paint streaks across the rain,

Chapin's melody, a haunting, wistful strain.

The choir's echo fades, a whisper faint and low,

Nurse and pilot dreams, where did the story go?

Perhaps in some uncharted, starry space,

Our paper wings and bandaged dolls embrace.

And in the quiet hush of memory's hold,

Our youthful voices, stories yet untold.

Unlikely Buddha 2023