Flight

Soar

Everything sped up.
I was on a highway, wind in my hair.
Then the wheel started to shake.
I was going too fast. I couldn't slow down.
A cold wind swept around me, but I couldn't put up the windows.
The car was driving me.
Its speed had taken me away.
We sped perilously downhill toward the Pacific.
I couldn't turn the wheel.
I was headed toward the cliff.
And there it happened.
As my car broke through the barrier, I could see it plummet — but I was no longer inside.
I was a seagull circling the cliffs.
I could see the car explode, orange flames far below, before the giant waves doused the fire.
Gliding in the air toward the horizon, into the sunset.
Everything that mattered from that life I still had — the love of family, my soul, peace.
For the first time, I sensed the wind rushing beneath my wing—
allowing me to soar.

A poem by Pemba Umoja