Caged Heart

The bruises should be obvious

perhaps they are

It has beat enough

My caged heart

The stiff, unyielding bars

So oblivious and profound

Frustrated, I'd given up

Trying to reason.

Let me out.

And it's been compared to a fettered bird,

A poor sparrow with broken wings;

but that isn't my thing.

And it's not what I am, not what this is.

Picture instead

A tiger, perhaps,

or a lion with a broken leg,

All the more dangerous in the pain it feels

And limping, still prowls.

Let me out.

And if the bruises aren't obvious

Then perhaps you're not looking.

Perhaps you should, though, make it a habit.

There's a door here, somewhere,

And one day, I'll be free.

And what you've done to me, what you've done,

It won't matter anymore. Then you'll see

I was never your captive and I wasn't your slave,

your poor pitied dove or your trembling quail.

I was only waiting, afraid, yes, but now

The crowd

Dispersed and moved on

I'm yesterday's news and when they've all gone

It's just going to be you and me.

And now I can see, so clearly it's blinding, almost,

in its unforgiving clarity:

I never should have been cowed by this person

Peering in at me.

Only one of us is the savage one:

The one waiting to leap.

And oh, I am ready, have been ready now, for a while.

Remember the day you put me here?

Remember the day I let you?

Foolishly I've waited for you to be my salvation

My bringer of love and all things good and right

But in my darkest nights I've learned

No salve exists for what ails me

And your absence spoke louder than any gift you could extend

through these bars.

And I learned not to need what I did not have

And I learned to live in spite of suffering

And I learned you weren't coming

To lift me from this cold and lonely floor.

My disbelief almost undid me, but now

I look and this cage is not inescapable.

Bruises heal. And there you are, standing,

Curious: Will she live or die?

And I warned you once,

I am full of surprises.

Let me out.