Caged Reality

By: A.W. Verheyen

Locked inside a dark cage. That's what it's like being here. I can't move, I can't breathe, I can't think. I'm

trapped inside this cage and I can't get out. My existence is locked in shackles.

Horrible, isn't it. Must you know, I manage. At times I scream out in horror, but still, I get by. Yet there is

not a soul that can fathom the agony that burns my strength to ashes.

Day by day, I sit here; my mind echoing with fear. I'm lost from the life that I barely live. Death itself cannot

break apart the bonds that tie me. Death itself cannot save me.

The unnerving nightmares that fill my sleep haunt me; the pain that fills this void in my being stretches me to the

brink of insanity. I've lost all hope; these chains lock me in. Their grip fractures my soul.

As I lay in this tomb, I'm aquatinted to slack jawed gawkers, glowering upon me. They watch my every move, and slowly

pass on by. Just day to day visitors; caring not for my life, but only for my death. There is nothing I can do but weep.

But weep for what? I have nothing to weep for. I'm stuck in the crevice of a lonely existence; locked in the cavity

of broken dreams. I am alone, I am restrained, and can't break free.

As the passers by gaze upon down, I try to talk back. But looks of disgust form on their faces. They don't want me

talking to them-or to anyone. They just want me to rot away. I am the scum of the earth.

Shallow, my heart may be, but their's is empty. They do not care for me, nor should they. I am a stain upon this

tranquil planet. I am but a filthy stain that needs to be vanquished from our society.

But what if I leave my existence. Though it may be shattered, it fills me with reverence. It is society who wants

to take me away. They don't agree with such a disgraceful pit of a mortal.

The chattering of voices echoes through my head. The hideous laughter, the beautiful coo of a dove, the vengeful

aspirations for death. They shake my fragile soul. I can't stop their reality.

I try to break free.

But the cage stops me. It holds me back. I can't release myself from it's tightening grip. I'm ensnared within the

walls of this dark cold cell, which is slowly closing in.

I begin to panic. The shackles tighten, the box that surrounds me get's smaller. I would try to move, but I have

no where to go. I might as well accept my fate, the fate of a lonely man.

And the cage that locks me in?

It is the steel cage that is my mind. It is my consciousness, my dreams, my lonely life of dispair as I waste away,

the scum of the earth. I am a wanderer of the streets. Nobody cares for me, and they have no reason to.

I will waste in the gutter, while you bask in your glory. Don't worry for me, there is nothing to worry for.