A Tale of Two: Kamikaze Wings By A.J. Huffman

I drove a flamingo to the perceived edge of the world to see if we would fall off. We did not end. Our journey continued past the red-buoyed warnings, my legs pedaling, wishing they were wings. Air is so much easier to traverse than water, less natural resistance. The sleek pink giant offered no assistance or caution, just willingly worked its wave through the waves.

I grew tired after awhile, but the stoic expression of my voyage companion motivated me. Unreasonable defiance was my shtick. I would find a way to wipe that Mona-Lisa-Know-It-All-Grin off its beak if I had to build a sandblaster. I pedaled harder, my legs no longer registering feeling. My muscles became liquid as the water tried to force us back to a beginning that was no longer in sight. Hours passed. Then days, weeks. Time lost all meaning as did trivial terminology like pain and progress.

Suddenly we struck land. An expanse of sand sideswiped us. (Focus too had abandoned us eons ago). I wanted to get out, give up on this mission of migration, but the bird was still flipping me its accusatory grin, and my legs no longer believed solid belonged beneath their feet. Sitting there in the spotlight of another morning’s sun, I suddenly understood we had already survived one predestined mythical death. Encouraged, I turned my feathered vessel around, pointed collective minds toward the celestial body that burned.

We took off at a different pace, intent on flight. This time our journey would be about height, not distance. Both of us were curious to see how high we could get before something started to melt.

© 2013 A.J. Huffman

A.J. Huffman has published six solo chapbooks and one joint chapbook through various small presses. Her seventh solo chapbook will be published in October by Writing Knights Press. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and the winner of the 2012 Promise of Light Haiku Contest. Her poetry, fiction, and haiku have appeared in hundreds of national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, Bone Orchard, EgoPHobia, Kritya, and Offerta Speciale, in which her work appeared in both English and Italian translation. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press. http://www.kindofahurricanepress.com

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