FLIGHT OF FANCY

I suppose all earthbound mortals have a fascination with the concept of flight. I certainly remember, as a boy, competing with my peers to design the most effective paper plane, and the various flights of fancy that this involved.
Is it too fanciful to see such efforts as a metaphor for our hopes and dreams as they soar and sadly, very often, crash to earth?

PAPER PLANE

                                

                                 He lets fly a paper plane,                                 
from his window airstrip, high
into gentle light that seems to welcome it.

The folded-foolscap floats and glides.

His bright eyes follow its haphazard flight:
first right then
left,
erratic as a butterfly.

Down, down it drifts,
a pleated page of insubstantial words.

It dips and stalls,
then on warm updrafts, rises again
briefly
like a despairing cry.