How To Fly

She is
the leading edge and

he removes himself
from her wake

not from jealousy
or anger but to honor

how far ahead she is. She needs
no drag upon her and

it’s not important, he tells himself,
if I cannot move on alone.  

It’s not important that I am alone and behind her
as she moves on ahead and alone.

He says this out loud
without knowing he’s spoken.

Says it out loud,
a strong wind behind those words. 

Says out loud something
not easily pried from him;

feels lighter at once,
blown along, carried along, lifted.

Out on the leading edge,
she feels not the slightest

of any of this.  Unaffected,
unfamiliar

with such turmoil – and
why should she be? She

already knows
how to fly.