Prisoner of the Glass House

“Don’t throw stones” said the sage so well

“If in a house made of glass you dwell”

But a different tale I think he’d tell

If he’d been raised in my crystal hell.

WHERE…

I never felt a breath of wind

No rain, no snow, no sleet

Not even a pebble to stub my toe

No grass to stain my feet.

What secret sin could I commit

In this prison where every inch is lit

And the world can see every time I spit?

While an inch away my inquisitors sit

Peering into my prison of glass.

Prisoners all, through the walls we stare

Quick to judge and unable to share

With our hearts concealed and our actions bare

In our spotless palace of glass.

So our deeds eschew what our minds embrace

We dare not go where our feelings race

Shouting ‘TRUTH’, a path of lies we trace

And ‘holy’ we call the best poker face

In this twisted dungeon of glass.

Kept alone by walls we dare not break

Enslaved by chains that we will not shake

Entombing our hearts where the will not break

Immune to the love that we try to fake

Frozen fast in our cell blocks of glass.

In this sterile world, with its pristine curse

My charade grew better and my heart grew worse

Long prayers poured forth from a soul half dead,

My heart dreams crash round me, their wings made of lead.

But I helped build this prison myself.

Yet through our halls one man walked free

Blemished past laid bare for us all to see

Free to hug and to laugh, get annoyed, even cry

If this life was human, then zombie was I.

And TRAPPED in this prison of glass!

Of the touch of his God I heard him tell

And it tossed a rock through my crystal cell

A rock called hope touched my vacant shell

While around our heads, in shards it fell,

That hideous prison of glass!

So I told him my life’s tale in all its woe

Fear slave of the God I didn’t know

Choking back the emotion I couldn’t show

Dreaming of places I dared not go…

Yes, THIS was my prison of glass!

My ‘God’ was a bully who’d take me to task

His, a gentleman friend– whom I’d only need ask

And choking up sobs that for years I’d held bound

I begged ‘Him’ for whatever this friend of mine found.

And I felt rushing LIFE where before– only glass!

I sob, I laugh, I babble thanks

As walls collapse of rage and angst

My God– no more in black and white

In vivid colors, warmth and light.

My prison’s shattered– I have flown.

And if as we walk through this earthly veil

At an unseen wall you see me quail…

Rejoice when that relic I finally pass through.

To my newest found freedom raise your glass (or two).

For a ruin is all that remains today

Of my hideous prison of glass!

And if one day as I’ve left these shards

I meet one trapped in his house of cards

Then joy from my broken heart I’ll show

And a rock through his glass prison wall I’ll throw.

That the God who is LOVE

We can feel, we can know

I was once past feeling,

I know,

I Know!

Micah Kohler —7/21-8/09