All this freedom
has built me a cage.
Lean my head ‘gainst the walls
to hear the breaking of waves.
They sing the harsh chorus
of another wasted day.
All that I was given
is what they took away.

I hum myself a tune
a neighbor taught me in my youth.
As I’ve gotten older,
it’s only grown in truth.
It tells of a brave boy
who stood up to a brute,
and how that beast cut him down,
for some are born to lose.

All my life I’ve been told
that I am free as can be,
and asked to ignore
these shackles, wrapped around me,
but try as they may
they cannot change what I’ve seen.
Red, black, and blue
coalesce as I bleed.

I used to run so hard,
maybe 18 miles a day.
There was no end to the race,
but I was not running away.
I was stuck on a track,
every pace kept me in place.
I had nowhere to go,
so I was sentenced to stay.

The food in here ain’t bad,
and it’s a warm place to sleep.
The warden treats me well,
gives me his own book to read,
The TV is so big
that I could never even see,
I was born in a prison,
and I was born with a key.