Escaping Every Cage an excerpt of Escaping Every Cage by Janet Kuypers Play the mp3Reading by Oz Hardwick ........when I was a child, I wanted to get away from my family wanted to get away from my town I wanted something bigger, faster, stronger than anything I ever knew before and so as I grew older I took those childhood memories those childhood toys, those childhood stories and one by one started placing them on an Island surrounded by deep water where no one could touch them and they would always remain just on the horizon ### I have always loved the water swam all my life I swam in pools with friends when I was little I swam along side the tropical fish off the Oahu coast I swam with dozens of White-Tipped Sharks off the Galapagos Islands when I get closer to water I get itchy to just jump in but even when I could let go in the water I’d see that Island in the distance holding all of my childhood traumas and I still never felt entirely free ### one day I decided to face these ancient cages that still hold me down I wanted to face it all battle all of those past demons so I went down to the shoreline arched my hand along my eyebrows looked for that Island of mine the water at the shoreline lapped over my feet pushing the coastline farther inland today I kept searching until I realized my Island fell into the ocean ### everything from my past disappeared except my memories ### that day, I couldn’t go into the water ### we all have our cages sometimes we can’t see them but they’re there, holding us back restraining us holding us down holding us in as I sit in my cage right now I look at these walls hear the cars driving past me and I think of these things that hold us down hmmm maybe we sometimes need these cages to protect us when we don’t know how to protect ourselves Copyright © by Janet Kuypers, All rights reserved Send private comments to publisher: editors@artvilla.com Read the Poem Of Every So Often at https://www.artvilla.com