The View From The Cage Poem by Briana Benner

There are stars upon my eyes, for I see
nothing but the glittering madness of my own heart
within me, beating, at the mercy of
the mothers and fathers before me.
Mercy, shine brightly on me,
for my glitter-clouded eyes are fixated solely
upon this lively world that is only my own.
The echoing cries of those I create
coat my ears and line my every thought;
they beckon, screaming, begging for more life.
They take so much;
they grasp and demand, and take again,
leaving my mind molested and savagely split by their
Fiction.
O, divine world;
land of promise;
land of all;
break these chains and release me.
Give me the strength to rise and to see;
clear my eyes of their cloudy
fiction-clogged dreams and impossible desires
so they may gaze upon what I must see;
my mother, reaching for me and returning with
empty
hands;
my sisters, distant and alarmingly aware of
horrifying
truths;
and myself, rattling the bars of a cage from which there is
no
escape,
and fighting a monster that I
cannot
defeat.
Oh raving despair, please leave me;
leave this place and never return, for you
are
not
wanted
here.
Fiction;
Distortion;
Fantasy;
Madness.
NOT.
REAL.
nothing is real...
but what i am not.