State of Angst

Amber lights,

Ghetto nights:

Cougar on her haunches strikes;

In the dimness of the day,

Others hover round their prey.

Each stalking some elusive thrill:

Hungry, greedy for the kill.

Tangential acts of random violence

Explode like bombs in the frigid silence.

And the watchers stand and gaze

Like spectres silhouetted by the blaze,

Eyes aglaze with dancing flames, 

As sheets of green and purple haze

One by one the stars erase.

But who would dare defy the rage

Of the bird who sings inside her cage

Desperate for her state to change:

A chance to flap her wings and fly

On a wind that lifts her up on high?

But she, condemned to sit and stare,

Conjuring up castles in the air,

Tries her hardest not to care

While those around her, paralysed by fear,

Wait in apathy as doom draws near.

Aviary Revolution

No more dark thoughts of dread

Like thunder pounding in my head.

No more long nights lying awake

In fear of the searching light of daybreak.

No more of the excuses that I once wore

Like dirty bandages over putrid sores.

No more cringing at the stares I've borne

From soulless children of the corn.

Content no more with the crusts of bread

That keep me little more than dead.

No more! I say. Nay, I cry!

While from mountain peaks that touch the sky

My soul, unfettered from the earth,

Takes wing and soars amidst the mirth

Of freedom's wind and bliss' rain

Far from the dying echoes of pain.