POETRY ON MEDIUM
Chains in the Sky
THE SKY IS THE LIMIT
Preface — My Inspiration
The idea appeared quite early in the morning when the sun had not yet risen. I was by the kitchen counter scrambling for a late-night snack — by late night I mean three in the morning — and the TV was playing in the background. On it, a mother character said to her child, “the sky is the limit, darling,” and if it had been any other time of day, the comment would’ve passed by my mind like every other meaningless phrase, but not this time.
I thought to myself, there is something odd about the phrase. To a child who wants to be a chef or a doctor or an architect, it is quite a reasonable thing to say, but if you were talking to an astronaut, one who has trained and prepared for space travel, saying “the sky is the limit” isn’t necessarily the most reassuring choice of words. Then, from that strain of curiosity, this poem was born. It is derived from the question: what if the sky truly is the limit, where we could not… or at least should not go beyond our own plot of space real estate?
The sky is the limit, literally.
Chains in the Sky
The shining stars hold no independence. They are not each awoken from a slumber rejoicing at the sight of infinity. They are reflections, light reflections, glares from the light of our sun against the chains wrapping our planet restraining our expansion. The moon is as far as we have been, marking what boundary extends before the red rock. We cannot besiege what impregnable body surrounds us. We cannot go further as the chains contain us within their rusted encapsulation. Trapped in a floating prison, our potential is forsaken by the skies. Let there not be a great evil unless we ring the chains that hold us. If we try to breach our shackled existence, God, if you are truly real, save our damned souls for no bunker nor fast-footed fellow can outmanoeuvre what catastrophe will be placed upon our doomed crowns. Look to the skies but do not wish to be in them for a danger awaits those who dream too far from home.
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