Put Away

The church, the state, the school, the magazine, think they are liberal and free! It is the freedom of a prison-yard. - Thoreau

forged iron and steel

what hearts and souls too often feel

click, click go the shackles

we're all prisoners

prisoners of breech birth

cellmates of our own girth

inmates of living's temporary mirth

captive of earth

jailed by time's dearth

upstream carp in a downstream firth

in the clink

link by link

along with the stench and kitchen sink

incarcerated

waiting to be emancipated

trying to get our minds "right"

so that we can finally know our self worth

Author's Note

"Why the jailer does not leave open his prison doors,--why the judge does not dismiss his case,--why the preacher does not dismiss his congregation! It is because they do not obey the hint God gives them, nor accept the pardon which he freely offers to all." - Thoreau