I am a prison, an asylum, a school,

full of barbed wire and hard concrete,

surrounded by emptiness and suspicion.

I have no piece of the sapphire sky,

no caress of the dripping honey sun.

I allow visitors only silence

while I wander around my skull,

where I’ve painted the bone with color, feeling, LOUD,

but my titanium bars and copper chains

are strong enough to choke my world.

I’m comfortable in my small, contained life,

but you are drawing me out,

enticing me with bright eyes and shining stars,

brighter and more precious then gems and stars,

purer than any gold or cold mountain streams.

Lured by these treasures, I step outside myself.

I breathe hot summer and the tingling, freezing fear and hope,

and as I start to speak, to release my thoughts,

they spread sparking wings, shimmering petals,

and I fly into the free, singing sky.