MILLENNIUM

From the Inside
by Tim Flanders (lathus@hotmail.com)

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Looking out these barred windows
I know what it is to be considered mad.
Outside this place
The sun shines merrily,
The birds sing in their blue heaven,
And killers are free to indulge theselves.

I am not with them.

In here I am bound.
The long shadows of this gated cell
Fall across my face in crossing paterns ...
And the world spins idly outside,
Unaware of the truly sinister forces at work.

They put me in here
So they could keep me close at hand.
No walking free for the mad.
We all float here --
One way or another.

Our jailors want the reassurance
That we have been tamed
And are no longer truly alive
Before they release us.
The only way to escape these walls,
Is to be changed:
	Impulses subdued ...
		Desires averted ...
			Urges left unfed.

Prescriptions let some of us roam serenly outside these walls,
To the places where no one can touch us.
For others it is the hope of release that keeps them free.
And still ... there are those lucky few
Who manage to escape these walls unchanged,
Securely fitted in the bags deemed for the morge.

Those small places underneath ... where all men go.

I will fly soon enough.
I have had my stay here
And I will gladly take my leave of these walls.
There are more pressing matters on the outside
That deserve my attention.