A Cage

You once gave me a mirror as a birthday present. Baffled by the unusualness of such a gift, I shamelessly expressed my bewilderment. You told me in response that I had been engulfed in a thick layer of darkness, that I needed to lift the blindfold and gaze at my own reflection. Your lips then curled into a compassionate smile as you said, "you are beautiful, and all you need to do is look into the mirror to see it for yourself". I did as you asked, but my eyes were greeted by the sight of a pathetic creature gazing back at me. Disappointment then seized every ounce of my body. Yet I turned to you and smiled, claiming that I could now see my true self.
Truth is, I did see my true self, and that is why now only the fragments of that mirror remain.

I have now put the blindfold back on and lost myself yet again in the cold embrace of darkness. The house I live in is to me but a cage, and day after day when I gaze out the window, I look beyond the threshold of what the naked eye can see. A vast wasteland of darkness then appears before me, where withered flowers bloom and sinister creatures are born into an unknown existence. These creatures never cross the line that separates reality from imagination, but I know that their eyes are fixated upon us, watching our every move. We are marionettes and they the puppet masters, and if we dare defy their orders, they will cut the strings and let us fall deeper and deeper into a blood-sucking abyss. My blindness to the beauties of the world has allowed me to lay eyes upon these puppeteers. Thus, this alone has become my truth. This is now the nature of the world in which I reside, infected with constant fear and paranoia. The blindfold needs to cover my eyes. I shall refuse to look at my own reflection, for it will merely be a reminder of how powerless we all are to the forces that control the universe. Thus, I would rather live within the boundaries of this wretched cage I have wrought than to roam free in a beautiful world built upon delusions. It is only through the bars of the cage that I can safely gaze at the ones who created us, these creators who now mock and treat us as nothing but playthings.

Now that you know the truth about my miserable life, will you stay by my side and guide me through the dark? Now that the veil of lies has been lifted and you can see me for who I truly am, with all my fears and all my insecurities, will you still hold my hand and comfort me in my lonely hours? You can live with me inside my cage, and I promise that you will be unaware of your own imprisonment. Your life will go on just as before, for you are merely traveling from the luxurious cage in which you have always lived to another, albeit uglier cage. Yet you will not know the difference, for you have refused to close your eyes and let your soul become one with darkness. All I ask is for you to whisper comforting words in my ears. Even though the truth behind such sweet words are always subject to scrutiny, I will be a little bit happier knowing that you, living in your own beautiful world to which I am blind, are sitting by my side.

But if you choose to leave, I will not blame you. Through the iron bars of my cage, I will begin to paint a mental picture of you holding the hands of another man, one who is exempt from all the fears and insecurities that have loom over me. You deserve to live without the blindfold, and your eyes need to be caressed by all the beautiful things that life has to offer. I, on the other hand, do not deserve such luxuries. For me, there exists another dimension, another world hidden to humans who can only see beauty. I shall forever remain in this dark world, and watch you live your life in another cage far away from me. Such is the truth behind my world.