The Cage

I was less than the spark at the start of the flame, When You fashioned my cage out of Truth's rules and morals. I was fresh from the morning and sparkling with dew, When the breath of Your kiss blew my soul into fire. The wires around me were golden with sunlight, A promise of safety, a paean to Love. And the barrier was bright and grew ever stronger, For each day I polished away the world's dirt. By learning and following and pointing due North, By smiling obedience and pleased acquiescence. While You watched and encouraged, so close I could feel You, Your arms holding me in my cage, like a cradle. But I grew and my cage seemed to shrink and to tarnish, The wires became fragile, my gaze wandered wide. Beyond and between the bars and the fence posts, I could see the green valley where butterflies beckoned. They were free, flying gaily over rivers and forests, Gaudy and giddy and swept up by the wind, Which giggled and blew them where I wished to be, Away from my cage and Your harness of Love. So I turned and I twisted and watched all directions, To see where those wings with their promises were lifted. And the wires, neglected, grew rickety and rusted. They twisted, like me, from disuse and damage. And finally broke; bent, bowed and exhausted, From fighting desires wrenching me from their grasp. So I raced through the wreckage and joined in the fun, To dance for myself and fly wild in the moonlight. To grab every moment and clasp to my heart, All life's pleasures and fancies and pearly delights. But the clouds that I reached for on that first night's crazed flight Were empty of substance, effervescently bright. They burst and they vanished as soon as I touched them And I fell in a haze of dizzying delusion. I woke with a jolt on fresh green in the open, And far in the distance a golden haze glowed. It was the cage that I'd fled in my madness and muddle And now it was clear the mistake that I'd made. Yes, the cage was a prison, iron bars, a great barrier, But the reason was not what I thought it to be. It was built in the middle of earth's beautiful vista, A prison housing all of life's selfish deceptions. A cage for our demons; to cage them and not us! Leaving us safe to explore all the paths Love could lead us.