The Heart is a Mansion
by Julian Lawler
I may speak, smile, curse, and yell
as if there was no cage around me,
like a lion roaming a safari,
but I see I'm caged, locked in a zoo
and I cannot ignore the iron-
wrought fence that has sprung around
my heart, like veins that have
turned crusty and brittle from
digesting all that has been fed and given.
