Betwixt Bars

Can you feel? Can you feel the tremor? That rocks your world That shakes the cage Like a beast trapped outside A beast raging against the bars It lifts, it throws, it rages Can you feel it? And in the aftermath, You can hear the cooing, cajoling Of puppeteers laying strings before your bars And they croon and cluck like fretting hens Petting your bars and calling for you to reach out and take these strings Tie them where they cannot reach Deep within, where no one else goes And let these good people in, They preen and you shake your head Seeing the gleam in their eyes Oh so like the ape’s Cooing, cajoling... cawing And oh, how you can feel it... But I’m here so hold on I’ll sit by your bars, I’ll sit by the door right beneath that lock that turns from within And I won’t rage, or set the siren’s call upon you I’ll sit by your bars, and keep you company My friend; But Cold bars let through a breeze friend... Your sharp breath is not secreted away And with every breath you take Your lungs are profaned And you cannot hide Behind bars You cannot hide From My voice, or my presence, or my eyes My eyes that see too clear And you cannot hide from what I see What you can feel Pressing in, from us all So just let us in My friend, Let us in, for we will not be kept out Life does not surrender, life does not hold back Life seeps through Every crack, And be sure, there are cracks everywhere Where there are breaths to be shared, there are bars to let them through, And you feel it don’t you? That which you see deep in my eyes You feel it That feeling so clearly reflected When I look into your soul That fear alive in my eyes That rages within you, But don’t fear a battle you have lost Do not fear the day you must face the world The world, friend, has never Turned its face from you And the rest of us: Well we are not so brave We are not iron bars moulded to flesh That fear you see is real And it is ours all But we cannot hide From what burns within And I will not die Hiding from life And I will not cower when I tremble inside I will not rest in a cage when I am tired And I, friend, I am so tired Of living between bars.