Poems

Super Man

The whole world’s telling me,

Be who you want to be.

Do what you want to do.

Go where you want to go.

And with nearly everything inside of me I want to,

But I can't because of this one thing inside of me,

Holding me back,

Fear.

It holds me captive as a prisoner.

The prison is my head,

My cell is my mind,

And my thoughts are the warden, yelling reminders at me day and night;

You can’t do that!

You’ll never get out!

You’re a filthy good-for-nothing piece of shit!

And you’ll never get out of here.

You’ll never see the light again,

Alone in this cell is where you’re going to die.

You see,

I can’t even eat without fear standing over me.

I sit hunched over, arms on each side of my tray.

Protecting my meal, cuz it’s all that I've got.

You see,

When the prison guards turn out the lights each night,

And all the other inmates in the surroundings cells lie under covers,

Eyes crusting, filling with sleep,

I lie awake fearing,

What if my door isn’t locked and a nearby inmate intrudes my cell with God knows what Intentions on his mind.

But I’m too scared to even get up and check,

Because what it the darkness beneath my bed is home to a beast ready to spill blood.

You see,

In the morning when the lights switch on and I stirr up in bed,

Opening my eyes,

I’m greeted by the warden with a loud bang to my cell bars and words that chill my spine.

She says, “Ready for another day in Hell?”

You see,

My body is covered in frost bite because I’ve had that chill sent down my spine every day for Five Years,

Everyday since my sentence to life in prison began.

So I lie back in bed and cling to my blanket in an attempt to gather any warmth that I can.

A thought enters my mind,

And I picture my blanket tied around my neck,

Like a cape.

And suddenly I’ve transformed from Clark Kent into Super Man,

Ready to go kick fear in the ass.

You see,

My courage takes me one step outside of my cell when I’m stopped dead in my tracks.

The glare from the warden is bad enough that I’m ready to retreat back to my bed,

But I stand my ground and look her straight in the eyes when she says,

“What the hell are you doing?”

You see,

I’m not really sure what I’m doing,

But one thing is for sure,

I will not be pushed around by fear the rest of my life.

So I rearrange myself and walk through the prison walls and break free.

I look back for a split second,

My stomach clenches and I think I might be sick.

But I swallow down the lump in my throat and I’m fine.

You see,

This time I’ll put my chin up,

My arms out,

And I’ll fly towards life,

I’ll chase my dreams.

The bruises from broken shackles will fade and Heal,

And I will continue to wear this cape around my neck like it’s my name tag

Because from now on,

I’ll be known as fearless.