A Series of Hypothetical Questions (or,
The Lesson of Icarus)

What is the opposite of agoraphobia?

Is it that feeling in your chest

when you feel too much?

As if your heart

cannot be contained by your ribcage?

Gasping for air

in a room that is filled with it?

​

What is the opposite of acrophobia?

Is it that tightness in your muscles

when you clench your fists so hard

that you start to bleed

and the rivulets run down your arms

to land in the dirt

beneath you?

​

What is the opposite of hubris?

Is it the knowledge

that you will never be enough?

Watching everyone outpace you

in the game of life?

Always the apprentice,

never the master?

​

What if you could get just a taste

of everything you ever wanted,

but to do so would mean

your death?

Would you do it?

Would you put on those wings

and fly?

​

Or would you stay,

your feet on the earth,

your heart already buried?

Covered in dust,

but safe.

​

Would you choose to fly

even if you knew you would fall?