You toss……………w-e-a-v-e
…………. t/w/i/s/t …………..
……. swoop ………… s~p~i~r~a~l ………………. climb
…………………….and twirl
slashing the air with tireless energy
shaking in bafflement your rainbow sail
swishing in scorn your yellow stripy tail.

Chanced to see you from my bedroom window
strained to peer round chimney pots and gables
observed your frolicking in wild delight
sporting your colours in the fading light.

What fool was flying you out in the street?
But you were always there, at any hour.
The moonlight gleamed upon your nightly dance.
The dawn was welcomed with your sunny prance.

It gradually began to dawn on me
You weren’t the hobby of some obsessed child
denied the freedom to seek open spaces
with precious toy, to put it through its paces.

Did you break loose upon some windy scarp?
Free to fly away to the horizon
more apt to tumble down, for branch and thorn
to clutch you, cruelly tangled, pierced and torn.

But Providence ordained a milder fate
a sloping roof to lie on when no breeze
a steady grip upon your reckless cord
which never tires, relaxes, or gets bored.

Or did some immature, impatient hand
send you aloft above forbidden roofs
to snag your string and so become the thrall
of brick and slate, chimney and gable wall?

But whilst I envy your untrammeled glee
I can’t determine if your present state
is one of endless joyful liberation
or an interminable captivation.