I can see it trapped inside you like an animal

caged - the person you know and want to be.

Pacing, restless, hating the bars, the too small dimensions of a world someone else

described for you that you pretend is all the world you need.  Pacing, restless but gradually ennui and acceptance making the bars thicker, the room smaller, you pace no longer.

I can see it through the windows of your cage (your eyes) the trapped proud beauty, animal strength, grace, animal passion, knowledge, quiescent now, leaving a shell lurking in

a corner watching life pass.

 

I went to the zoo a few weeks ago.

A beautiful spring day, birds and children chattering above the cries and grunts of the animals in cages. A spring day, buds breaking from the trap of winter, grass and insects, human eyes in contact of sex-knowledge and

I felt it was a day that everyone should live

and in my mind eye I saw the cage doors swung open and the animals lumbering free 

with a fierce new glint, new animal

knowledge glinting in their eye and in the spring warmth mind-eye I saw me rushing

from cage to cage breaking locks and

smashing glass and animals rushing by me 

into a life they remembered.

Then I rememberd you and your eyes

through which I see that beautiful trapped

animal.  I remembered seeing the glint there

as we fumbled with the lock, breathing 

excitement.  Then I remembered the lock held fast, my hands, my own passion, failing you,

failing me.