Desert Flight

 Desert Flight 

This poem was written as a part of a challenge to write a poem in fifteen minutes! 

Locked & bound by earthly 

shackles, how I used to crave 

to bury my head deep within 

the Earth, to return to Mother’s 

warm embrace, the gentle 

radiance from her core. These 

chains I built link by link to tether 

myself to Mother & protect 

myself from hurricanes. How I 

feared airplanes & whirlwinds 

who made me feel so unstable 

& small; the wind would pluck 

my feathers because I had 

always refused to fly. Now 

centuries of solitude & 

shapeless locks have forced me 

to soar without lifting my arms. 

How my mind molds its own reality, 

fed by the Earth yet existing only 

to be free in the heavens; to feel 

the cold breeze under my wings 

& proclaim “this is freedom” away 

from the fires & destruction down 

below me there in reality. No, this 

is but a lie childhood tells me to 

hide behind my own fear. Refusal 

is never liberty & ignorance is 

never truth. & on that desert plane 

where insects have grown fat from 

the carreon & spoils of the land; 

I see liberty sprawled out in the 

sky above me. The sandy dunes 

are no longer stable for me to hide 

under, & the plants have turned to 

prickly cacti I may no longer stand 

on as my own. No, for these ashes 

under my feet must bore me to rise 

once again, & this time I will no 

longer lie to myself. This time, I 

will take off into the sky.