there is nothing left inside my chest
but a bitter emptiness that lines
the hours of my love with
caged bars to keep me safe-
and while I long, like a song bird,
to be free of my prison
i know that this self-imposed
pain in which my heart resides
is but a punishment of the self
for things that cannot be told
but rather lay hidden…
and I am lost to the ravages
of my own mind
a darkening that lingers within
my heart like a bleak warden