Fable Of The Wings

He wore a suit of morning grey
Not a thought did he betray
And he moved inside the human tide
At the end of his working day

Off the train and down the road
Stepping through the door
Sees his wife staring at him
From across the floor

She said "A stranger came today
Opened up a silver tray
And he gave me pills to cure all ills
Said I'd see things in a different way

"My throat is tight, my heart is pounding
And my limbs are weak
Voices come from so far away
I can barely hear you speak."

That night she dreamed strange things
As her thoughts ran down in rings
To the morning sky, she gave a cry
To discover she had grown wings

See her gaze into the mirror
Peering through the gloom
Stretch and watch as this great wonder
Filled her tiny room.

She arose from off her bed
Raised her wings above her head
and red with shame, she cried in vain
"Oh I wish that I was dead!

"Whatever will the neighbours say?
What gossip will they speak?
And what will my children think
When they see that I'm a freak?"

And soon there came the day
For the last act of the play
You could see surprise in the surgeon's
At the task that before him lay

And from deep behind the mask
someone gave a sigh
Wondering what it must be like
to have the power to fly.

He wore a suit of morning grey
Not a thought did he betray
And he moved inside the human tide
At the end of his working day

For those of us who are like to trip
Those who are like to fall
However high the walls we build
We find no shelter at all.