The hand on my face presses down, sliding its fingers into my gills. No oxygen, no screaming, I suppose it thinks. My mouth proves otherwise. I have teeth, I have lungs, I have a voice that belts out an alert to all around me. There is a creature here wanting to crush you. It’s got me. Stay back, else it will get you, too.
Tag: chained
Bound.
I jumped over a hill today.
One of those great rolling ones
that merge with the ocean
just out of sight.
I did it in one spring.
At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.
I don’t want to talk about the chains.
They wrap around my arms,
squeezing
the flesh
so that it bulges.
I used
to point at them,
rattle the links in their faces.
But always
they would claim
they couldn’t see.
Now I stare into the distance,
leaping across fields
and dipping my toes
into the cool water of the lake.
They can’t see the chains;
they can’t see my escape.
The air
might not
be fresh on my journeys.
I don’t mind.
There’s freedom there,
and I claim it.
