That Burden On My Back

I sense a permanent ache
Where I would have let
My Isis wings grow,
Where every one of us
Should be given this gift.

Yet only angels got wings
Or those birds passing by.
You’re born without but
Have some freedom
If you belong to the luckiest
In this beautiful but suffering Earth.

And one day for a given reason
That freedom starts to shiver
Of heaven you just see a sliver.
No spring, no almond trees in blossom,
No laughs, no warm embraces,
The same sadness on other faces.

I try to look somewhere else,
Immersed in the greenness of nature
Of a park nearby, where two swans
Cross silently, magestically,
The peaceful waters of the lake.

I look high up in the sky
Wonder if freedom has been jailed,
But as Georg Danzer sings
Freedom’s no animal to imprison
And that’s the most important reason
To keep us all alive with hope.

That burden on my back
Will one day disappear,
And if we’re born without wings
There are other ways to fly:
Wings of poetry, layers of art
That come straight from our heart.

 

© May 2018 Marta Pombo Sallés

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This poem has been inspired by an article entitled “És aquest pes” published in the Ara newspaper by Catalan writer and journalist Sílvia Soler i  Guasch: https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%ADlvia_Soler_i_Guasch