I require sky

• Katie Zhang, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2004

no longer can we live in darkness,
in the underground labyrinths of our own
ignorance no not in our age:
not in any age but especially not in ours
where people breed like insects and die like insects;
kill and are killed like insects and watch the carnage
happily uncomprehending the madness of death.

[i require sky]

it lies above us like a mirror
the world is so old and each of us like a butterfly
that lives only a day (but what a glorious day).
before we know freedom we do not care
but a single glimpse seeds within us a hunger:
wild, burning, insatiable.
and so we spread our wings and dance on the breeze
we climb and swoop and soar.