PARANOIA

Enisled within my body-cell a universe is bound
In silent conflict with itself, whose peace is never found.
If only there were but a door, and likewise but a key,
So that the light may enter in to let my darkness flee.
My inner self would grasp the dawn, were not its shackles clay;
My secret dreams would leap to life if walls could fall away.
This wounded Psyche weeps within, and yet is never heard
By those whose tongues are quick to hurt and shatter with a word.
What mocking laughter tears my ears to prick my heart below,
And dashes thus my cowering mind before its trust can grow ...
The murmurs on their smiling lips, derision in their eyes -
If they could know the pain they wield, the friendship they despise;
And how their sharp unspoken thoughts like needles pierce my skin -
How in abasement shrinks my soul as cruel words flood in!

- - -"The child is father of the man who longs his Life to find" -
- - -And yet the Temple of my Soul is prison of my Mind.