The Year We Learned to Fly Flashcards
We were flying over the city we’d known our whole lives, but it was suddenly different.
The Year We Learned to Fly
We fought and frowned and made silent promises to never speak to each other ever again.
The Year We Learned to Fly
They dreamed a thing and made it happen.
The Year We Learned to Fly
That was the autumn our rooms felt too big and lonely with only us in them and darkness coming on so fast.
The Year We Learned to Fly
Lift you arms, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and stop being so mean about everything.
The Year We Learned to Fly
It was suddenly different.
The Year We Learned to Fly
But while we hugged ourselves against the too-quite of it all, we remembered
The Year We Learned to Fly
A street where the kids looked at us funny.
The Year We Learned to Fly
For a long time, the kids on the ground watched us…then one by one they lifted their arms.
The Year We Learned to Fly
That was the spring when the rain seemed like it would never stop and thunder boomed so hard, we weren’t allowed to go outside.
The Year We Learned to Fly
Use those beautiful and brilliant minds of yours, my grandmother said.
The Year We Learned to Fly
Lift you arms, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and believe in a thing.
The Year We Learned to Fly
Somebody somewhere at some point was just as bored as you are now.
The Year We Learned to Fly
So my brother and I closed our eyes.
The Year We Learned to Fly
And for a few minutes that first day, we weren’t stuck in our apartment anymore.
The Year We Learned to Fly
Exploding with every kind of flower we’d ever dreamed of growing.
The Year We Learned to Fly
Somebody somewhere at some point was just as mad as you are now.
The Year We Learned to Fly
So we did.
The Year We Learned to Fly
And as the soft wind took us out over the city and past the windows of kids who hadn’t yet learned to fly, my brother and I reached for each other’s hand, flying and diving and laughing, and leaving all of our mad far behind us.
The Year We Learned to Fly
But while we hugged ourselves against the too quiet of it all, we remembered that we didn’t have to be stuck anywhere anymore.
The Year We Learned to Fly
My grandmother had learned to fly from the people who came before.
The Year We Learned to Fly
They were aunts and uncles and cousins who were brought here on huge ships, their wrists and ankles cuffed in iron, but, my grandmother said, nobody can ever cuff your beautiful and brilliant mind.
The Year We Learned to Fly
So our people learned to fly, she said.
The Year We Learned to Fly
Closed their eyes and flew away home.
The Year We Learned to Fly