!Goretti Publications Gopherspace - Poetry
 __^__                                     __^__
( ___ )----------------------------------( ___ )
 | / |   _____           _                | \ |
 | / |  |  __ \         | |               | \ |
 | / |  | |__) |__   ___| |_ _ __ _   _   | \ |
 | / |  |  ___/ _ \ / _ \ __| '__| | | |  | \ |
 | / |  | |  | (_) |  __/ |_| |  | |_| |  | \ |
 | / |  |_|   \___/ \___|\__|_|   \__, |  | \ |
 | / |                             __/ |  | \ |
 |___|                            |___/   |___|
(_____)----------------------------------(_____)

Trapped
Donald P. Goodman III

Confined and trapped, an animal without a route
to move along his path, who can't go anywhere
but here, for every struggle tightens up the snare
that keeps him trapped and makes the pain e'er more acute
the longer with this prison he is in dispute
and ever tighter draws the noose around his bare
and fragile neck, and ever harder comes the air
as tight-enclosing walls e'er tighter persecute.
He fears the jail more than the jailer; even prayer
as all the walls close in seems, like him, trapped and mute
within his jail and in his mind; he cannot bear
his mind so full to burst with abject, trapped despair!

His prison holds him tightly, so he cannot see
whatever might outside his mind's cruel prison be.