a pilgrim represented as a boy
holds his life represented as a kite
facing fate represented by the wind.

the pilgrim feels fate push against his life.
to get his life aloft
he will supplement fate with effort
represented by his running like the wind.

aloftness
is subject to
not only the variant wind
plus the speed of the running boy,
but also the surface on which the boy runs
and that which rests on or moves over the surface.

the surface and its denizens
may be thought of as additional fate,
but they are really proof
that metaphors are crude attempts
by the allegorical minds that build them
to cope
through reduction.

the kite vanishes.
the wind dies.
the boy weeps.