A Horse in the Sky
Safety instructions for the turning of the year.
The plane’s going down in a sort of a circle.
It banks and it dips like a horse over hurdles.
The pilot’s mind races. She starts handing out gifts.
And the pressure that filled up the cabin — it lifts.
And the wings take to flight as the hands take the gifts.
Like the present unfolding, unwrapping in shifts.
Yes, it’s your birthday all over and over again.
It’s surprise and surprise and begin and begin.
There’s no ending in life. Well, except when it ends.
And you accept that it’s ended, like the willow branch bends.
Ask the leaves, my friend, they’ll tell you —
You can’t go out on every limb.
You can’t let the spirit fill you up
until you’ve sung the hymn.
It’s hard to really hold a thing
when you grabbed it on a whim.
And it won’t matter if your clothes are thick
if your mind is wearing thin.
If you don’t like which words come out
then watch which ones go in.
And be tender to the meat that
lays between your bones and skin.
Sometimes you can’t fall fast asleep
until you’ve slowly said your prayers.
Yes, sometimes it’s best to just say your secrets
even though no one is there.
Sometimes it’s fine when folks are looking
to let them stop and stare.
And when the weight of the world is too much —
and it is —
It’s okay to just not have a care.
For
You can just love the people who love who you are.
You can stare into space and carve out the stars.
You can look yourself dead in the face with your scars.
Or
You can let your brain play air guitar.
You can listen to music that isn’t quite there.
You can deal with the cards that are flipped and laid bare.
You can flip them and deal them yourself if you dare —
Just hold them twixt your fingers like a soft wisp of hair.
And give them to the wind.
Give the wind to the trees.
Give the trees to the dirt.
Rub the dirt on your knees.
Let your knees put one foot in front of the other
and watch the yellow brick road turn to all sorts of colors.
Watch the boys turn to fathers, the girls turn to mothers.
Watch the strangest of strangers turn sisters and brothers.
Watch sisters and brothers turn words into song.
Watch the whole world explode —
and think nothing is wrong.
Hold hands
in a circle,
in a room,
round a flame.
Close your eyes
and be silent,
then all whisper
one name.
Forget the word Different.
Forget the word Same.
Forget why you came here.
Forget who to blame.
Forget to remember.
Forget you’re insane —
Put your head twixt your knees and just breathe.
On a plane —
that is moving in circles,
so it’s never off course.
You’re not falling.
The earth is calling you.
For it knows
you are a horse.
Benjamin Perkins Burke is an interdisciplinary artist and story engineer. He is looking forward to a year of naked faces and properly laced boots.
Safwat Saleem is a graphic designer and visual artist. He hopes to consume more pizza in 2018 than he did in 2017.
The TED Fellows program hand-picks young innovators from around the world to raise international awareness of their work and maximize their impact.
