they said I was free

They said I was free,

But chains I still feel.

They tell me to fly,

And my pain is not real.

I don’t see the shackles,

Yet if I look close,

Bruises appear on,

My wrists, feet and throat.

I thought freedom would feel,

Much different from this.

So I become numb,

That’s as close as I’ll get.

pit

I’ve fallen in a pit,

I wallow and I sit,

As the hole it seems grows deeper.

I cannot decide,

If I should escape or hide,

As the walls around get steeper.

Time after time,

I’ve attempted the climb,

But my body is growing much weaker.

My mind starts to slip,

My hands lose their grip,

My exit is looking much bleaker.

The air it grows thick,

Down here in the pit,

Breathing becomes an issue.

The light has faded,

Not sure I can make it,

I’m no longer certain I wish to. 

burdened

Burdened and weary,

From this load that I carry,

Now my shoulders, they slump low.

The baggage, the stress,

I’ve been dragging this mess,

The whole family’s been in tow.

Unable to share,

This load that I bear,

It has been mine alone.

Others added to it,

Seems I let them do it,

Oh, how the pile has grown.

Crippled by the weight,

I no longer stand up straight,

My back is starting to bow.

My body can’t take it,

I’m not sure it’ll make it,

As this heaviness continues to grow.

I stumble and shake,

The load is too great,

I can no longer bear the burden.

I emptied my heart,

So I could carry your part,

Now I’m hollow and my body’s hurtin’.

This hollow body,

Now deformed and gaudy,

Can’t help but bend and sway.

My backbone is brittle,

It buckles a little,

Soon it will fully give way.

If I continue,

Collapse will ensue,

I must reclaim these parts of me.

I have tried at length,

Lord give me the strength,

That’s needed to shake myself free.

this place

I’m back in the place,

I was years ago.

It feels so different,

Yet I’ve nothing to show,

For the time that has passed.

I thought things would last.

The fight was so long,

But I lost it so fast.

I thought I was headed,

In a different direction.

Turns out I’m stagnant,

Stuck in a reflection.

So much has happened,

Yet nothing has changed.

What started has ended,

Nothing was gained.

So full of passion,

I poured it all out.

Now it is gone.

I’m left with my doubt,

That life will turn around.

That life will ever be,

What I had hoped,

What I had dreamed.

All of these years,

Were so full of tears,

So full of prayers,

So full of fears. 

When will the loss,

Turn into gain?

When will the joy,

Come out of the pain?

I set out to fix,

I thought I could mend,

Things now more broken,

Then they’ve ever been.

My efforts so fruitless,

The time, it fell useless.

Dismay is conducive,

To this place that is ruthless.

You say nothing’s lost,

You say nothing’s wasted.

Maybe someday I’ll see it,

Someday I’ll taste it.

This fruit that eludes me,

Where is it growing?

You say it’s about trusting,

And less about knowing.

Take hold of my heart,

It’s broken and jaded.

Mend it with hope,

Mend it with patience.

I don’t like this place,

But I know I must face it.

Lord give me the grace,

The grace to embrace it.

slowly

I’m just a shell,

That’s all I have left.

There’s nothing within,

I’m void and bereft.

Lacking emotion,

But mourning a death.

There’s nothing inside,

I’m no longer alive.

My heart isn’t broken,

It’s just been bled dry.

Not sure where I went,

Not sure when I left.

It must have been slowly,

‘Cause nobody wept.

rest

You say “come to me,

All who are weary,

And I will give you rest”.

So I come to you,

But I don’t know what to do,

To get this burden off of my chest.

I continue to choke,

Under a different yoke.

What is it that still pulls me down?

These things that I carry,

They continue to bury,

And weigh me deep into the ground.

I want to grab hold,

Of the courage, the bold,

But my grip must be too weak.

For try as I may,

It just slips away,

And once again I get knocked off my feet. 

I know there’ll be peace,

If I can ever release,

This weight that continues to bind me.

I don’t mean to do this,

I try to refuse it,

Somehow it still manages to find me.

I wish I knew,

How to give it to you,

The pressure continues to stack.

How do I let go,

Of the worry in tow?

I need you to take it off of my back.

lungs

Here’s where I laid,

I laid here for days.

My lungs not expanding,

My lungs not contracting.

My body not dead,

My lungs only acting.

Still as can be,

Not relaxed, just empty.

No air coming in,

No air going out.

The room full of silence,

Not a whisper, not a shout.

I laid here for years,

Trapped without tears.

No feelings to feel,

Where they went I don’t know,

Perhaps with my tears,

Forced deep down below. 

Maybe stuck in my chest,

Weighed down by heaviness.

This must be the reason,

Why my lungs are not breathing.