feathers

Hi Yoshikrab!
I'm mostly here for your theme(I want to get it right this time!) but there is just one thing that bothers me:

they're just as pretty as bright rings

.

they're streamlined, pretty, and they're light

You repeat "pretty" here but it doesn't help with emphasis, especially since there's a stanza break in between.

As for your theme, it's a bit tricky to figure out. Past the literal meaning of feathers, I first wondered if you were talking about compliments:

they make you feel worthy of flight

they bring you up, up to the top

but then you add the imagery of "rich kings" and this bit:

but even as we're stuck on stone

sighing loudly-- we're all alone

And that leaves me to wonder if this is about money, or even friendship. And money actually makes sense in context: "bright rings", "streamlined", and the way you use "have" in your third and fourth stanzas. But this line makes me disinclined to believe this is about material money:

they float and fall and never drop

At least for me I'm always fumbling with change at the cashier, but this is just one line and it might lean more to the figurative side of things.

I really did like this poem; your imagery is wonderful, no matter if it's simply about feathers or something else. Your use of "soft" in the third stanza works really well for me, and the idea of using kites to fly instead of feathers also adds another depth to the poem: you don't have to fly with feathers, and yet the people in the fourth stanza think they can only fly with feathers. I'm not sure if this was accidental hypocrisy or if the people with kite strings were just being maneuvered by someone else, almost like a puppet. In that stanza you also play with the idea that some people aren't "meant for pretty wings", and this also makes me wonder if this is about more than compliments or money.
Overall I think you could have made the theme a little clearer; in some parts changing the diction(like "pretty" for "alluring", and the first line of stanza three could use some adjectives) would help strengthen the theme even more. I'd really like to know, what was the theme you were trying to convey?

Hi, Spearmint here with a review! Overall, this poem was a super neat read (also nice formatting, by the way). Personally I’ve always wanted to fly, although I hate that stomach-dropping feeling you get when falling too quickly (like on roller-coasters and stuff). So I guess I’ll just stick to flying though reading works like yours!

Anyways, on to some suggestions:

and even though they cannot fly

It seems like you’re talking about feathers here, and (do correct me if I’m wrong), feathers are able to fly, right? I mean, okay, I guess they don’t fly by themselves, but I think most people associate feathers with flight. And combined with the first line (“they push you up into the sky”), to me this line doesn’t completely make sense. I get that you have a rhyme scheme for this poem and each line needs to have a certain rhythm, but maybe you could change it to something like, “and even as they help you fly”?

And speaking of your rhyme scheme, I think it feels a bit limiting sometimes. Like ForeverYoung mentioned, the “rings” part doesn’t quite fit. I can’t think of anything that would fit better, though...
If you wanted to work on this poem more, maybe you could try writing it without the rhymes? I think that’d be pretty cool. It would give you more freedom to write what you wanted without worrying about having to rhyme. : )

they make you feel worthy of flight

Just another nitpicky thing: when I read the poem in my head, this line sounds a little wonky. I usually pronounce “worthy” with emphasis on the first syllable, but in the context of this poem, the emphasis kind of moves to the second syllable (if that makes any sense). Maybe something like “they make you worthier of flight” would work better?

Last thing:

or soft descents on soft kite strings

A small detail, but you repeat “soft” here— maybe you could change the second “soft” to something else?

Okay, I’m really sorry if I’m being too perfectionistic here; it’s just that your poem is already great and the only critiques I can find are about the details :p
I enjoyed reading this and the last lines are totally true— even if we’re stuck on the ground, we can always dream of better skies. Thanks for posting this awesome poem!