In Chains Poem by Dereje Amera

I live in chains—with fetters of this world
Borne within me—I can’t get rid off
They say to me—detach yourself
In church pulpit—speak of proud

I can’t detach—I love this world
They can’t detach—they love this world
I want to eat—what is in this world

Why do I live with such a pain?
For God is free—people in chain

All need to be free
As God is free

Birds escape from the cage
Never return—once they see a free world
Soaring, flying in blue sky
Never go back to a space so tiny

I hate my cage-it prisons me
My soul lives under control of form and shape
She cannot soar, cannot fly—burdens herself with tiny world
And limiting my world—to time and space at all

What a contradiction exists in one’s being
A fusion the body and soul has brought it here
For my soul has no time and space
But my cage lives in the laws of both!