Throwing Away the Wind

It was the best kite we’d made, at least

the only one that flew. An old tablecloth,

needle and thread, bamboo canes,

string and folded strips of newspaper

for the tail. As a man yelled,

It’s too heavy to fly, the sky lifted it effortlessly

out of our clumsy hands. It climbed the wind’s ladder,

rising above the impurities of coal.

Through squinting eyes, we could see its silhouette

under a sunburned cloud. We were butterflies

playing as children, flying through each other’s minds,

pulling the wind from the sky.

When the sun whispered its last dream, and the moon

was too heavy to tow, the umbilical cord broke.

We walked home under an indifferent sky, wondering

if our kite would ever reach the ground.

And in our beds, we were butterflies again,

though our wings invisible from each other’s eyes.

We talked of how easy it was to fly, made finger shadows

on a dark wall, daring light to interrupt our thoughts,

afraid to sleep in case we woke again as children.

Rowland Hughes is a Welsh writer and poet. He was born, and lived until his late teens, in the Rhondda Valley, from where he still draws most of his inspiration. He worked as a Master Decorator and studied trades in the construction industry. He later became a Local Authority Assistant Surveyor. Due to ill health, he retired in 1997. In 1998, he joined a Cardiff University Creative Writing Group. He loves to observe people, places and nature, writing in bustling cafés and the confines of his writing shed.