"All the happiness you'll ever find lies within you." -Anonymous

Sunday, February 12, 2012

One day but not today

Author's note: This response was inspired by this passage from Chapter 7: "The middle one of the three windows was half-way open; and sitting close beside it, taking the air with infinite sadness of mien, like some disconsolate prisoner, Utterson saw Dr. Jekyll." When I read this quote I thought of the desire to be free and being a prisoner to evil to the day we die. In my poem I try to portray that only death has the power to truly set us free.


Every day she looks out the window
Every day she cries
Every day she is a prisoner trapped inside

She wants to be one of them
Playing and free
Instead she looks out longingly

The world passes her by
She wants to be involved
She wants to change humanity
But that dream quickly dissolves

She is trapped behind the glass
Never to be free
She touches the window sadly
And wishes she could flee

She is protected from all evil
She will never get hurt
Her life will be perfect
But perfect covered in dirt

She wants to commit sin
Come in contact with evil
Feel it rush through her veins
And gain power through her struggle

One day, but not today

Green grass blowing
Flowers swaying
Children running
Sun shining:
This is where she belongs

One day, but not today

Cold gray brick
Dreary pale drapes
Hard concrete floor
One tiny window of hope:
This is where she is

A captive to goodness
A hostage to hope
A prisoner to belief
A criminal to morality

A part of her knows she is never getting out
She is chained to the misery
But she refuses to let it take her over

That is the true evil in the world
Giving in, giving up
Letting suffering ruin a beautiful life
She will not fall victim to this evil

She wants to fall victim to the evils of the world
The ones that tell her she is free
The ones that she will fight
The ones that she will change

One day, but not today

Day after day she tells herself these things
Until her whole life has passed her by
The world falling right from her reach
The light fading from the sky
She looks out the window one last time and smiles
She knows that all that she’s ever wanted awaits her
She closes her eyes and she is there

Finally out
Finally allowed to be
The chains come off and she is free

2 comments:

  1. I really like the way you created a sort of dark, off feeling through the poem! The way you ended a lot of your verbs with "ing" because it gives it a much more poetic feel! You used great diction, and I love the way you repeated "One day, but not today." Great job!

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  2. I thought it was awesome Maggie! I really thought your use of repetition of every day, she, etc. was very effective. The rhyming was nice too. The only thing you might be able to improve on might be some better word choice in some areas, but I liked it a lot, good job.

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