New Song: One Wing

The swedish actor and writer Kent Andersson died a few years ago. I live and work across the street from his home theatre, Aftonstjärnan (The Evening Star) in Göteborg. Many of us go through difficulties in life, making us feel curtailed or diminished. For several years this poem by Kent Andersson have given me new insights on these feelings.

The Wing 

We all walk around with just one wing
that we can not fly with
which becomes a burden to us
that we have to conceal.
We probably would have been able to fly
if not all self-appointed superintendents,
masters of school
and all of the practical, tactical,
zealous, critical,
anemeic, academic
wrong-finders with a lecturing tone
had said:
you surely can not fly!
Stay on the ground, you one-winged bastard!
And if you even dream of daring
with a single wing beat
to test your ability to fly
we will take your wing some day!
We all go around with just one wing,
a dream, a longing, a song.
What if our wings were to
fly together again!