HEAVY LUNGS BEHIND BARS AND A LOCKED DOOR

Katie Lam, BIGZ

My silence was a gift,

The soul was adrift.

The soul was dreaming behind bars,

And a locked door the heart melts within.

For the heart shatters through a hall of beating drums,

Thump, thump, thump...

But the lock won’t budge.

As a burden was taken upon narrow shoulders,

The shoulder; a distasteful being to the women behind the mirror.

But no wise men ever told her,

How to climb the smooth, concrete wall,

Without shedding a tear,

Without dropping a pin,

Without missing a step.

Each step the woman took,

Before her; youth and soul; blurry, grasping hands.

Heavy lungs, terror was a flood

Inevitable, they said.

The sky was a shade of maroon, the eyes had seen blood.

If you wanted to grant them freedom, they said.

Simply cut the line hanging on for the kite.

Simply cut the leash around the neck.

Who’s neck? Who’s leash? Is that a kite in the sky?

No one knows about the heart, the lungs, the soul.

The bars, the walls, the locked doors.

The wise man, the burden, the woman and the wall.

Or the leash; nor the kite in the sky.

And maybe, just maybe.

The women never climbed the smooth, concrete wall.

The heavy lungs were never behind bars and a locked door.