Arms round me
People leading
Pushing
Where to?
Faces mime incomprehensibly
Smiling in parody
At my cage
Unaware that I am in here
That I have
Abilities
Thoughts
Dreams
Loves

Fears

So they take me
Hoping I’ll become
What they want me to be
Wanting transformation
To their blueprint
Leading me where I don’t want to go.

And there he stood
The centre of the crowd
But somehow
Separate,
Different
He looks through the cage
And sees
Me
Not what he wants me to be
Not his preconceptions
But me
-all that I am
all that I hope to be
and that vision scares me
The possibility takes me aback.

He takes my hand
And leads me
Away from their demands
Their expectations
Their incomprehension
The bars they build
To reinforce my cage

He takes my hand
And leads me
Where I don’t want to go
Yet knows my reluctance and fear
Understands my unwillingness
As if he knows it for himself

Now there is no mime,
No parody
But a smile
That speaks to my eyes
That looks through the bars
To my soul

He reaches out
To my ears
To my tongue
With a touch
That sends
Energy and fire
Sparking within me
Dancing around my body
The padlock springs open
With a mighty crack

I face the open door
Of my cage
And all at once the cage seems gilded
A safe haven
A palace of solitude
And he sees that too
And takes my hand
And leads me out
Into a world of glorious possibilities.

And like a caged nightingale
Released
I begin a song
Of freedom
Filled with the painful goldenness of his touch
A song overflowing, uncontainable, bubbling over with sharp edged joy.

And he who has freed me
Faces the immensity of his action
Given my own life
My own creativity
I create and transform to my own blueprint
And my shout of his action
Overwhelms his call for silence.