Pegasus

They say that Pegasus has giant wings
of swan or eagle, muscular and wide.
A hiker pauses at Pierian springs
and gathers feathers from the water-side
and finds them tiny, jeweled, malachite,
azure and ruby, gaudy thistle-fluff
or snowflakes spun from many-colored light.
These plumes could not be nearly strong enough
to give the gift of flight to any horse,
say literal minds. I raise for disputation
a question of aerodynamic force:
how heavy is a breath shaped into words,
can Pegasus, embodied inspiration
still hover on the wings of hummingbirds?


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