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In memory of Ladan and Laleh. They had a hope that we could not fulfil, and so we could not hold their spirits to this earth. May they forever be free, wherever they are now.

Imagine yourself spreading nascent wings
Imagine you feeling the tantalising pull
of the wind urging you to ride it into the
limitlessness of human possibility
Imagine eagerly giving a flap
Imagine even as your ability lifted you off this jealous earth
an equally strong force held you firmly to the dust
And imagine looking around, frustrated, startled,
to see the person so frantically grasping at your smouldering feathers
and to stare into the depths of
your own eyes

Wanting to take to the cool night air
two phoenixes tethered by the same feather
struggle down their chosen flight path
until the stars that beckoned them showed only two routes
One would allow them to survive
the embers kept warm in a brick vault
but who could see the stars through a wall?
The other would allow them to live

But instead of flying as the winds dictated
the encumbered avians soared with top speed
at a point somewhere in the fork

With the obstinate tearing of the winds
that frail tether could not hope to hold
It was only physical after all
And snapping promptly, the birds suddenly found themselves
flying free
In the joy of the moment, they spiralled only further down
In their freedom, they only headed downwards
away from the patiently waiting stars

They hardly had time to enjoy the rush of flaming
freefall

But you only wanted to live
and subjected yourselves to agony, to misery
but you must have known
If you'd chosen instead to survive
wouldn't it have hurt more?
Wouldn't it have hurt more?