gram linski

Caged In An Animal's Mind

Caged in an animal's mind;
No wish to be more or else
Than I am; a smile and a grief
Of breath that thinks with its blood,

Yet straining despite; unsure
In my stir of festering will
Testing each day the skin
Of this wall for a possible scar

Where the questioning goad of the gale
forever trying my bones
Might suddenly gather and flail
And burst through the wall - Would rage

Be enough to hold me erect,
Dazed in an unknown light,
And drive me on with no more
Than my strength of naked will

To range the inhuman storm,
Follow wherever it lead
And answer - whether I hear
A Voice or only the voices

Of my own self- answering scream
In a void of punishing calm ?

Stanley Burnshaw