how to read out loud with your children

There are ropes that spring out from the ground and whip around my wrists
and I'm arrested--
they burn--
I am still expected to move through shifting sand dunes at great speed.
I am half my height when weighed down.
I am expected to move buildings;
I am walking on the tops of towers,
looking down.
I may only succeed in
bringing the temple down with me.

If my body was more lithe,
I would shear off the cheating lengths to find
the real strength lies waiting,
softly growling, behind my sternum.

I do some of this for the thought of you,
but I tell myself it's all for me,
because to see the ones I love,
happy,
and to have you take off your goggles,
aviator,
and take
one eternal look
at me,
would make me happy.

I never want it to be that bad again.

I will claw my way up a graded wall of ice and pavement
if it means finally holding that power--
if it finally means blood to my lips--
heat exchanged--
if it finally means something to someone else
because it means so much to me.

-Dana Winter