When I am caged in steel behind a door,
And touch the bars that hold me there in pain,
When I am bound in fetters tight and more,
And bite at locks that bind and hold my brain,

Is it a crime to wish, to want, to plead,
And pleading, cry my pain to silent wall,
And crying, show the wounds that still do bleed
To blinded windows where the shadows fall?

In golden cages birds are singing loud,
In iron cages panthers pace along;
In mind and thought my dreams do seem to crowd,
But then, the dreaming stops and drowns my song.

            Can this, my hated cage of gold and steel,
            Forever drown my wish to hold and feel?©
Magvulpes, January 11, 2000