Prisha Khimavat

This is part of a writing challenge. Click here to read about it.

I look out of the metal tube that I’m in

Not to cry I’m determined

Even though I’m flying free

There’s no way more caged I could be

Anxiety rattles the cage of my heart

And the streaming tears do their part

I look out the window and see

White cotton heaps calling out to me

They dare me to break free

To experience, what life could be.

I watch the birds fly untethered

Among the clouds as soft as a feather

I close my eyes and I’m lost

Marveling in the beauty

And the shapes of the clouds

I feel the others’ judgement

Ignoring my rage, mocking my cage

The beauty of the sky, the freedom it offers

It taunts and jeers, finding my pain amusing.

I want to find that damn key

I want to set myself free

And yet, 

I remind enclosed behind these walls

This tube of metal holding me captive.

Hours pass by, they’re closing in

This is it. 

This is how I die.

Then, just when I can’t take it anymore, 

A rush of wind fills my lungs,

We’re back on the ground.

It’s over. I’m alive.

We’ve landed.

Airplane rides are really hard for me. I feel trapped and stuck, like there’s no way I’m getting out of there. The walls seem to be closing in, I feel like I can’t breathe. Sometimes I manage to fall asleep and it’s all good, but other times the paradoxical irony seems to be mocking me. The disparity between the vast open skies and me. Stuck, trapped, captured, caged.

~ Prisha Khimavat ~

Duration: 34 minutes and 47 seconds