A name can feel heavy
Before you ever mention it.
Some names carry rooms
You never meant to dwell in.
A name can imitate until you
Forget your own voice.
Some lock behind you like a
Door you didn't restrict.
Some names carry rooms
You never meant to live in.
And still, you wear them
Because someone handed
Them to you.
Some lock trailing you like a
Door you didn't close.
One day you discern the metal
Shift.
And still, you wear them
Because someone handed
Them to you.
One day you hear the metal
Shift.
One day you step out
Leaving the cage open
Behind you.
The earth shakes, mimicking my weary bones,
And the ground is wet with tears left behind.
The cage of whiteness, locked tightly inside,
Upholds the heavy weight of every day's design.
Secrets and memories are ghosts we keep,
Bound tightly within the walls of the chest—
Forgiven, forgotten, or just cast aside,
The architecture of a heart aching for rest.
My steps falter on the unpaved ground,
Stumbling under the weight of a calcified spine.
Yet all this physical aching scarcely compares
To the quiet, structural cage of skeletal frame—
That has, until today,
Only answered to the marrow of your name.
the joy of others, my cage
accomplishment of peers, my regret
adventures of folk, my envy
spoils of my life, my dream
romance, my anguish
darkness of society, my worry
scarcity of kindness, my nightmare
life is but a test—
most fail it
we thrive in its agony.
yet dawn arrives for those who cannot see,
its light rejected by unwilling eyes.
we mourn the chains we never dared to break,
and call our prison home.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
This poem is inspired by the true story of poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. Bedridden and isolated, Elizabeth received a letter from Robert that began, "I love your verses with all my heart." Over 20 months they exchanged 574 letters that mended her fear and gave her life back.
574 LETTERS
Elizabeth lay bedridden in a lonely room,
A wounded bird behind walls of gloom.
Then came a letter, soft as a spell,
_"I love your verses with all my heart" Robert would tell.
A crack of light filled her cage of fear,
Whispers of love drove the mist from here.
574 letters crossed the night,
Mending her wings with gold and light.
Like lilies that grew in abandoned ground,
Her broken life to heaven was bound.
He didn’t burn the past or the pain,
He wrote her hope till she lived again.
So mend, don’t burn. Write, don’t run.
Love can heal anyone, anyone.
Through walls of glass, the
naked daylight streams,
Exposing rooms where quiet
shadows rest.
Two lonely souls trapped in
forgotten dreams,
Each locked inside a cold,
separate nest.
The crystal palace lets the
world look in,
Yet blocks the warmth of
any healing word,
Beneath one roof, the
distance starts to win,
Their silent grief remains
unseen, and unheard.
The husband watches night
fall from his bed,
The wife lies staring at the
ceiling high,
The tender language of their
past is dead,
Replaced by echoes of a
heavy sigh.
This fragile fortress offers no
defense,
Where transparent walls
build a fortress wall,
The love they harbored,
once so deep and dense,
Now shatters softly as the
dark hours fall.
A golden cage gleams
Known for shine and beauty when
Birds call it their home
One in your thoughts… one in your mind …will leave you with one…
One onto the person you have become…
The space is taken.. only for one …
One holds power in one’s mind …
No room for any other kind …
Funny how close mind is to mine …
selfishness brings that of a kind …
alone with one’s self you will find ..
There is no truth in one’s mind ..
Regardless of all that is known ..
one will stay as one until one no longer fears the unknown …….
Everyday I live, I am a prisoner
There is freedom but I am caged
There is happiness but I am sad
heavily my heart bleeds for nothing
Not able to place my fingers on what is bleeding my heart
Or should I say I lack of self continuity
O ye songbirds crammed in a captive cage.
Whilst ye flutter to free from confined space,
Man’s spirit hails home and hearth all his age
Opting for cells’ safety but freedom less.
O captive birds ye sing but wails of rage
Whilst staring at blue skies, freedom’s lost face,
Free birds swing whilst perched on a branch--their stage,
And sing songs of freedom with avian grace.
And alight to homing trees just to rest
Or rear their young in the safety of nest--
Enduring home, not once a prison’s rage,
Whilst man’s freewill seems fleeting at its best,
A prison cell besides, if nigh modest--
A rainbow summoned in a sunny cage.
______________________________
Sonnet | 09.02.2026 | birds, cage, freedom, home, prison
Is a girl whose smile
dominates her face
Life is moving by her pace
Not forgetting God’s grace
She left the nest
At an early age
Escaped the cage
With high hopes of turning
into a new page
She was alone in the forest
Her heart filled with doubts
She survived droughts
like a xerophyte in desert
She was now an expert
One night she turned right back
Finding herself on the right track
” No matter where you go,
Remember the road that will
lead you home”
A free bird
Bounded by cage
Shackled by the bindings of
Time and circumstances
Fluttering,
Trying to get free
Its beautiful colourful wings
Turning grey
Red, yellow and shades of blue
Turning to ashen grey
Dreaming of soaring the skies
But its life went astray
The only colour which remains
Is the red in its vein
The final attempt to bring colour
oozes out his veins
Finally he is free from the shackles
Soaring in the red hellish sky
Free at last
On his own accord
"Let Death embrace me"
He said
Better than turning grey
In the cold rolled steel of my cage
His master now squeals and weeps
Oh my what have I done!
I should have gave him a bigger cage
It would have been better than this one
Gilded cage feeding the illusion.
Crowned princess story but at what cost.
Happiness not in the equation.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
My life feels like an undetached magnet.
I do run, yet I recoil and reset.
It's like addiction with no use of drugs,
Or a trap made by the users' warm hugs.
My dear Owner! Release me from this cage.
For I am sealed inside my own bondage.
Deliver me! Lift me up from this place
Of squalid magnets that do not efface.
Captive Soul
A mask of smile, a fortress lie
A cage existence when question lie
A fragile whisper, a silent plea
To break free wild and truly be
Fears of shadows dark and deep
Where secret lie in slumber keep
Bars of judgement, confine my flight
Shadows of doubt, eclipse the light
Feathers ruffled longing to soar
A captive sport forever more
A bird yearning to break free
A silent prisoner just to be
A whisper echoes, soft and low
Awaiting courage, yet to grow
Until the day, I break the chain
And soar on current without pain
Xenophobes don't approve of strangers.
They dramatize fearing what they don't know.
Prefer cages to overcoming phobias.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
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