Barrier

The shield on my heart is a cage, is a
Vice.
You cannot see me
Where alone I sing
Softly
As nightmares flicker
In dark cragged corners.

You may speak
To the satellites
The battered birds
That flutter around
My skull.

You may look
Into my shuttered eyes.

But my song is silent
And already sung
And my heart is
Shrunk
And dry.

Come and kiss
My dusty mouth. Come
And hold my idle hand

My dusty heart
Is cracked in a cage
My shrunken hands
Are a vice for the
heart, my shuttered eyes
are birdpecked
and my shrunken song
is sung.