Little Boxes

Old poem.

Little boxes

Drawn all over the page

Signifying all I know

What I feel--Trapped

It's like a cage.

It IS a cage.

I'm in a cage

and I can't break out of it.

I'm stuck here forever.

I used to try to break out

But it's no use

This cage is glass

and it's bullet proof.

A two-sided mirror

People

They see themselves in me

They see their pain

               Their fear

               Their anger

And they walk away

I'm a reminder.

So they walk away.

I sish I could walk away

but I'm stuck in a little box

It's hard to breathe in here.

I'm curled up.

Laying, laughing.

I relax.  Sprawl out.

Bask in the solidarity

The pain is unbearable

It's hot in here.

It's so hard to breathe in here.

They know that.

But they keep walking

You know that.

It's hard to breathe, trapped in this box

So I guess I'll stop

Reviews

[Jenni]

I appreciate the breathless quality this had: short, sharp lines. Makes me think of hyperventilating, which makes sense, given the claustrophobic nature of the poem. Lines like 'I'm curled up./Laying, laughing" were great. Simple, effective.
I'm curious as to what "it" is though, the box? I understand that the cage is a metaphor for...something. But it won't be super effective unless I can infer what exactly is boxing the speaker in. I'm not entirely sure what the reasoning is behind your decision to indent 'their fear/their anger' like you did...
This has a lot of potential, and I find your style interesting, so I'd really like to see you take this further! Great job!