When she awakes, she is a bird

And as she gracelessly runs off the cliff she starts to fly

And feels the rushing wind on her reddened cheeks as she smiles

And she finally gets to know what clouds feel like.

She flips upside down, just to test the limits of her newly realized powers

And in the middle of the sky she seeks an endpoint

Twisting around and holding her breath simply to see what it will take to fall

Until she comes to the realization that she can’t fall.

She is destined to fly forever and ever until the end of time when the clouds finally sink

And even then she will still be flying, unable to come down with them

And it will be dark and quiet around her which reminds her too much of home to be comforting

She is an astronaut now, and this home is more void than even the emptiest promises of the cliff.

Eventually she gets lonely, because she is the only bird in the whole world

Who chose to run off the cliff in the first place

Who closed her eyes and opened her mouth to say “no” 

To the social norms and societal pressures that pushed her towards the cliff in the first place

Gravity doesn’t work on her like it does for the rest of them on the cliff

Who seem to be there just so they can say they almost jumped, almost tried to fly

As if that notion alone would be enough to defy society just a little

Serving as an elusive representation of the words “you don’t own me.”

And yet their contempt for the way the world works is nothing

Compared to their concern for being alone, being an outcast.

And while the sky is clear and colorful it is also empty, unlike the

Crowded cliff filled with people who refuse to take loneliness as a side effect of flight.

So they pretend to be filled with revolutionary rage 

in hopes their stony leaders and social constructors haven't seen the likes of Spartacus

But they directed Spartacus

And know the hunger for flight is illusory, and can be sated with pills and pop culture

Once there was a girl that flew so high and so far she touched the sun

While everyone else watched from the ground in fits of restlessness

The girl wished she could fall

The world wished it could fly

But they were all just birds, forever locked in the cages of their impossible dreams.