I learn to Fly

How did I slip my reins?
I'd overheard their talk
of trying Allders first.
(To me the word meant 'trees',
we had one by the shed.)
Is that why I took off,
to look for them? Or was
the vastness of the store
a clear sign saying 'run'?

And then shapes closing in...
tall shapes that loomed above
like trees in a thick wood.
But these trees moved: scrawny
branches waved and gestured,
trunks trotted right up close
or swayed on dinky ankles
as branches clutched at me,
leaves whispering my name.

I ducked and weaved, I turned
and twisted; soon became
a shadow flitting through
the shadowed undergrowth,
ghosting out of nowhere
into my own created space.
I hung wings on the trees,
so now they swooped and dived,
but just as quickly, I
became an aeroplane
and out-manoeuvred them.

Not many people knew:
the war's first dog-fight, that.