Inside the cages
The freedom
is the heaven

In the chains
any change
is welcome

The outside prison
is calling out to you
the invisible chains
binding everyone on earth
who go up, are falling down
it is just like what is in this home

Still the ravens are up
true to their wing
and we are in a place
to go nowhere

Yearning to feel
to breathe the fresh air
get an experience
to be unbound
get the heartbeats
to beat back to the music

The time when all
the shackles are broken
The time spins
and we have nowhere to go
but we run
towards the sun
But we can't fly.

"Would you look at
all these free souls
carrying their cages
wherever they go?"

People are free. their minds free. their speech free. free from slavery. free. but are they truly, free? They have built cages for themselves. They never want to come out of them. We pray to God. unquestionably. unfailingly. but why do we fail to question the real reason why we pray to God? why are we searching for him in statues and people when we know he left this place a long time ago? and if he didn't leave, why do we celebrate what he created and not question what he destroyed? why do we fight to save someone we can't see or feel against the very people he created?
Until people come out of the cages, we may never get the answer to these questions.

here we are again
the edge of the world
the streetlights far behind us
and your smile in the hazy dark

truth be told
we tiptoed out of our cages
bringing old notebooks and sleepless dreams
tripping into each other's laughs

it has been months since it was like this
the uncertainty of your hand on my wrist
hushed whispers in the dead of the night
and I feel weight slip off my spine

our feet carry us to the only place of solace that we know
and even in the weeks of forgetting
in the time I let the sea carry you away
we will always find our way back here

and you start telling me of his steady hands
I remember that yours were never like that
so I smile at the thought of you belonging somewhere
after years of wandering aimlessly

so you make sand towers like you always do
and I look for seashells like I always do
the sea is singing lullabies to the two weary souls
and my pulse is humming with it

you race me to the water
and the stars glitter as you wade through them
the wind whips our hair into a tangled mess of ink
and I barely reach you when you start to speak

you recite dead languages to my fingertips
all I can think of is the promise of a sweet death
your voice against my sea-kissed skin
and the only eyes that could drown me

we drag ourselves to the shore
shaking the sand from our hair
we get blankets to wrap around our shoulders
and I feel the corners of my mouth tilt up

side by side
all of the languages of the world dead to us now
as we breathe in the sweetness of escape
and our heads tilt towards each other

you ask me what I look for in someone
and I trace swirls into the sand for a while
because I don't know
and maybe I have never known

almost two decades of this fragile life
almost everyone I’ve loved only people of my imagination|
and I kid myself with the question
and maybe I’m just afraid of the answer

but I draw the constellations in my mind as I whisper to myself
"you."

It all started with a few words on a page
And somehow turned into a whole lot more
Cause everything I knew had changed, when I started keeping score

Writing used to be simple poetry,
Instead of the only place my soul feels free.

Scars filled bodies
Wounded hearts
And empty souls.
But don't spread your hands
In front of someone
Because that is only going to get you more pain and longing hours.
Go back to
Where you came from
That's your cage
Your corner
That's where you belong.

The beast inside me lies dormant.
At least for now.
Someday soon it will awaken
And I have no idea when, but it will somehow.

It might arouse me from sleep in the dead of night
Or it could attack when there’s nothing I can do.
But, regardless, it will live again
And I'll have no control when it breaks through.

I can try to fight it, as many times as it takes,
But it will always return stronger than before,
An incredible force against my small power.
For now, though, it sleeps silently, unable to roar.

I'm simply numb from its absence
Numb from the temporary quiet of this beast
But it will awake once more, and I'll lose myself again
When from its cage it is released.