Cages

You were a strange creature.

A maned wolf.

This beautiful,

brutal thing

in unsuitable conditions.

I fell in love with the way you paced,

disdaining and relentless,

reminding everyone

in every moment

that you did not belong there.

Or maybe anywhere.

I envied the audacity

of gnashing at captors

biting at bars

“Fuck their one ring circus,”

you might have said,

and meant it.

Proud to starve,

if necessary,

to prove you were free.

What could I do

but escape with you?

Much later,

when tracing my pale, raised scars,

I understood the reality-

You were caged

inside that animal.