As a kid
My uncle made me a red wooden rocking horse.
It was really a sleigh to the sky
I knew so, the first day I tried it out-
Horse-pulled toward the moon, me
Meant to be rocked in plain aire, could finally see them
Like the Hubble or better yet, now like the James Webb.
Back then, I took a lasso with me
My parents didn’t see-
Invisible like wonder woman’s
But not for wars or battles.
For, Jesus never killed,
Which struck me, even like lightening way back then.
How did He fly without killing insects, I mused as a kid.
Even the fish and stars followed Him in willing pools;
As for me, I wanted to corral the moon and stars
And be myself
In their midst-to sparkle with them and like them…
And to know each, by proximity. To whisper their names in passing…
Later, when I watched Philipe Petite tight rope
Between the world trade centers, it all made sense.
We want to sky walk as kids, and some of us do.
That was me then,
Wanting to lasso the Sky way before I had a telescope
Or phone app to see them well
-and then release them all like fish back to what they were
Before I saw them.
I was a boy-wonder in love with words
Cantering wildly into the Sky above,
Unabashedly seeking the reel and rhyme. Rocking my way
Towards glory in time.

Or at best and least, wanting to test
The limits of my uncle’s red rocking horse

in real time.