Rusted Locks & Restless Rivers

There is a cage inside me,

bars built from expectation, from silence, from the heavy hands of those who told me how small I was allowed to be.

But, my bones remember flight, and

my lungs remember wide horizons.

Every inhale is rebellion, every exhale, a plea;

let me out, let me out, let me out.

I am a restless river, I am a storm untamed, I am the rusted lock already breaking at the seam.

I want to feel the wind carve its wildness into my skin,

I want to walk roads that do not end,

I want to speak without swallowing the words before they are born.

I yearn for a life that does not shrink me.

I yearn for a sky that does not close.

I yearn for freedom the way roots yearn for water, the way fire yearns for air.

And I know, when the bars give way, when the walls collapse, when the world can no longer contain me—

I will not run.

I will soar.