Tell me, my friend.
Have you ever looked at a caged bird?
They're quite like us,
Even though it sounds rather absurd.

The small bird is restricted,
Behind cold metel bars,
The same way that our ribs and skin,
Cage away our heart.

Maybe if you ponder the this theory
For a little bit longer,
The points of similarity
Begin to grow stronger.

Maybe you never take a chance,
Because you're terrified to fall,
If that is the case, My Dear,
Then fear would cage us all.

Maybe you're lover didn't love you back,
Or they could have cheated and lied.
You can act as tough as you want,
But you're heart is dying inside.

It's easier to hide in fear,
And pretend like things don't matter.
Because then you don't have to risk
Your heart getting shattered.

And even the most beautiful,
Or the ones with brilliant minds,
Don't always see what they are,
Because of the caged little bird **inside.

In that moment
When he looked at her
She seemed small
Like a child
Sweet and innocent
Well loved

But then

She turns her head
Away from him
And the shining metel
Embedded in her face
Catches the light
The dark under her eyes
Pulls him in
Like a black hole
The sweet child in her
Is replaced
By her cold hard shield.

Will it ever change?
Will I walk away;
and not feel lost
Will I ever experience this rush
I watch filling lovers limbs.
Raising them higher than our stratosphere

Will I ever float?

Through a stilted gaze
I look,  kept from emotion
and long to feel.
The waves crashing at their toes
Sandy, passionate love rolls like foam
that kisses the shore with bubbly lips.

Will I ever be kissed like that?

my metel chest warms at her sight
More with hope of what could be
Instead of what would be.
Although my mourning persists
beating against my ribs
Insistant
My chest aches at this sight,
I wish no more harm
Although I do not raise one finger.
I exist to observe
My stilted tin kelidescope twisting and peeling away emotion
and I am allowed to see
but not experience.
Never experience.

Jon or Jonny's what they called him back home
but we were all just "Private" to the Engineer Corp
Down for whatever, through thin & thick
in the worst parts of it all, he had my 6

His smile always lightened up the mood
when I needed a friend to listen, he was there too
Pieces of metel from an IED attack
still left a bit of shrapnel there in his back

"Where there's smoke.." Ya know that saying?
Needless to say, that's how he got a new name
1st man up, last one to leave
always the cool one when ya needed him to be

My "Battle Buddy"

E company came back 14 men short
with 30 purple hearts on class A uniforms
I got depressed & tried to deal with it
Smoke never seemed to find that switch

He didn't show up to formation one morn.
When I saw him in his car it shocked me to the core
seein' him there in PT shorts
with one less bullet in a 44

He was my Battle Buddy

....
Jon, or Jonny, is what they called him back home
We were all just Private to the Engineer Corp
Down for whatever, through thin & thick
in the worst parts of it all, he had my 6 .