Breaking Free

Written September 29, 2009:

Jealousy was the guard dog that kept me in your cage.
You said it was there for my protection;
I knew better.

Fear was my prison diet -- flavorless but substantive;
enough to sustain me but not to give me the strength to escape.

Fits of rage were the prison wardens you sent to discipline me --
if I stepped too close to the bars or gazed too long out the window.

Guilt trips you used to clip the wings of my free spirit.
It's hard to fly when you're looking down all the time.

Isolation was my cellmate.
How else could I have believed that nobody could be trusted?
that nobody cared enough to come for me?

Lies were the shackles that kept me chained to your blame.
In my distorted sense of reality, I welcomed the chance for 'penance.' Only later I realized I shouldn't have carried the load in the first place.

But your penal system imploded from within.
The prison break was on your watch, beneath your nose.
Carried by family and friends, the truth set me free.