Kay N. Sanders: "How to Let Go of a Kite"

Wait for a day rattled with wind
Climb the ladder to the attic
      stuffed with all

            you hang on to
Find the kite stored
      when your last child
             moved out

Take it to a field
      unbound by wires
Loosen the string
Love how it pirouettes in the wind
Run as though you could catch it

Stop and calm
      your ragged breathing
Relax your hold
Hear it sing
      through your fingers
See how it's carried
      on the wind’s own breath
Wave it over the horizon

"How to Let Go of a Kite" by Kay N. Sanders. Published in Free Verse (January 2009).

Image credit: "Red Kite," oil on canvas, by Lisa Lea Bemish (originally color).