I'm feeling a little nostalgic today, so I'm gonna throw in something old skool. This is the very first poem I ever wrote down in an actual, organized notebook, when it finally occured to me the need may exist for such a measure. I was about 14 or 15 I think. *sniff* Memories!!!!!

TETHER

The tether rope cut from my wrist
Is once again tied tightly
The freedom once enjoyed so well
Now sends its wrath to spite me

I created my own cage
Bar by bar with careless dreaming
Believing I could not be touched
Until the blood was streaming

The salty sting of well earned sweat
Did not effect my vision
Until at last my sharpened tongue
Made its deep incision

I felt no shame in bearing wounds
To those who cared to see them
But soon they overwhelmed my brain
And robbed me of my reason

I let myself begin to see
More beauty in the mirror
But someone wiped the surface clean
And made the image clearer

Developing the photographs
Of characters in my mind
The blemishes on others' forms
Grew bigger than on mine

I gained a false impression
Of my saintliness and grace
But now I lie beneath the trash
Of martyrdom misplaced

Excuses were my eggshell
Within which I am trapped
Now painfully I wait
For this casing to be cracked

Still too cowardly to fight
I insist my hands are tied
And I leave them to be clenched
Stead fast between my thighs