.Caged.

Caged

by alice oiseau

Caged I stand behind corroding bars

Where the last flame flickers subtly under a crow's wing

And sand grains trickle by.

I cannot merely fly away

For I am smitten with my dystopia----

                where love is pricked and transformed to craving addiction;

                                            infatuation.

               *

Acidic is the water I drink

Poisoning my psyche and

impetus; a gift borne from the womb of Calliope

and nurtured from the bosom of earth

               *

O!

                   What foul and cruel yearn!

                   to stay caged behind corroding bars

                   yet knowing the chains cut deep and asphyxiate...

               *

It is not you; it is them.

They are the crow's wing, the corroding,

           the water marked with currents of toxin and apathy.

               *

I swore to fight fire with fire

An oath (slowly withering and archaic) rests in my troubled thoughts

   and incessantly haunts

              ...in the reflection-less mirror

               *

Spring will come and end

The wind will summon me forth and I will set sail for paradise,

for something more; something of what this cage, formerly a home,

                                                                                      had been.