What If I Fly…… Poem by Adesola Jegede

I've lived my life in a box.
Self-imposed 4-way concrete
Walled in.
I never start, so I never fail;
And trust me: I know all the ways I could fail.
I've thought ‘em all out, I lived them all out,
And I decided to lock myself in,
Rather than risk meeting roadblocks I cannot go through.
I lived my life in a box.

I couldn't breathe,
And while I'd had a million dreams of what the Milky Way looks like,
I'd never actually seen the stars, never actually reached for them.
And I couldn't breathe.
Touch hunger,
A madness sweeping over me.
Claustrophobia:
Vision dark,
Heart pounding.
A fire in my bones that won't go out.
It burned and blazed till I blew.
I lived my life in a box,
But I couldn't contain me.

It couldn't hold my dreams,
So I broke it down.
Nothing so dignified,
It was visceral, it was rage, it was desperate.
It was me.

I lived my life in a box.
It couldn't hold my dreams,
So I blew it up,
Jumped off a cliff,
And flew by the seat of my pants.

And what do you know…
I did not crash