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STAR

A star fell down from heaven.  I watched as it tumbled from the night sky, trailing in its silver wake the very stuff of dreams.  I listened as it fell, my breath trapped within the cage of my throat as I witnessed its glittering slide down the arc of gravity and into the plane of mortals.  In the silent spaces of my soul, I imagined that I could hear the fiery kiss of its first brush against the atmosphere.  In my thoughts, I felt the breeze of its passing ¾ an impossibly subtle current of air against my cheek, like the wind from an angel’s wing.  And suddenly, standing on that hilltop, shivering in the coolness of the Autumn night, I knew that I could fly.  I had only to lift my feet from the grass, and the earth would fall away beneath me.  Buoyed on the dark ribbon of sky, I would dance upon the clouds, and let the blue-white diamonds of the Milky Way slip through my fingers like so many drops of water. And then, the last glimmerings of the star’s trail faded into the night sky, and I knew that the moment of magic had passed.  My feet were once again weighted down by the twin entropies of reality and gravity.  And I was left standing on a hilltop: alone, and in the darkness.

An angel came down from heaven.  She did not fall.  She came with purpose and intent, stooping to sweep the tatters of my own broken wings from the floor where I had abandoned them like the forgotten toys of childhood.  I trembled as she touched me, my heart thundering in my chest as she lifted me into the clouds, freeing me from the prison of gravity.  In the secret places of my soul I wept, for no man can hope to capture the heart of so beautiful a creature.  I resolved to content myself with the brush of her wingtip against my cheek.  But the angel knew the secret in my heart.  "Do not be afraid," she whispered.  "For -- though it is true that no man can capture the heart of an angel -- no law among heaven or earth says that I cannot give it freely."  And I felt the fire of her kiss upon my lips.

Some nights, when the stars burn bright in the curtain of night, I stand again on that hilltop.  I know that I am not alone, and I am reminded that the darkness makes the stars shine even brighter.  And in the quietest and most secret part of my soul, I know that I can fly.

-- J. S. Edwards