Past the Dragon's Keep

In this cage What most people consider a mansion Big enough to drown out the screams Wide enough to play hide and seek The door remains barred when I'm alone And the cockatiel chirps its shrilling screams Almost taunting and mocking the empty rooms Nowhere to run in the empty, wide open spaces Not so much as a sound should be uttered While the dragon is in its keep, sleeping Dreaming of far from here places Far from disappointments And as I creep past its door While I hold my breath to not disturb its slumber I close my eyes and soar Soar to the next room Past expectant eyes, and accusing gleams And in that cluttered room Full of stacks of paper and forgotten novels There lies a story Sitting on the desk in the corner Where I can breath Where my hands can form endless possibilities of a future A future where that dragon no longer breathes fire The future in which I am to succeed And as the words spill from pencil to paper All the remaining beauty from within me The scars that no longer bleed but all the same, never run dry Pour into the story Which never leaves the desk The desk in the farthest corner of the room Across the dragon's keep The only place where poetry sets me free.