Trapped

"Trapped in darkness, within the heart of me,
A captive bird struggles to be free.
Wings beating madly, risking mutilation,
She fights against the fear of silent suffocation.

"Seeking unknown freedom and passions unrestrained,
Becoming bruised and battered, feathers brightly stained.
Bleeding, struggling blindly, crashing against her cage,
Propelled by old desires and unacknowledged rage.

"Oblivious to the cruelty of illusion's impenetrable walls,
She flies against the painted bars, crumbles back, and falls.
And as she shudders, dying, upon the sharply splintered floor,
She suffers, still unseeing, beneath her ever-open prison door."

From "Meeting the Madwoman" by Linda Schierse Leonard