Spirit in a Bottle
by Joanne Marisa Leow
trapped
--- wings beating
frantic against bars;
the wild thrashing
frenzied for freedom
the gasping poem entangled in me
clawing for the fresh air
and recognition.
succeeding only in fragments
slivers of half-thought;
the dull throb of mute panic
darting through my mind.
The equivocation of
wanting this fatal freedom
and a sustaining imprisonment.
Straining for certain death
measured, illogical heartbeats
rapidly ebbing
to a gradual
anticipated
halt.
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