Caged within the bones

is a woman who wants the world

Wants mouthfulls of honey, bittersweet life

to choke her lungs, feel it drip

out of the corner of her lips

She wants her feet to grow calloused

from dancing in mud puddles

and black with the ashes of her wildfire.

Caged within the bones

is a songbird who dreams of

flying free, always performing -

The silence of the crowd

the anticipation of the moment -

She craves it in her bones

until yearning wets her cheeks 

and floods her heart.

She can have none of this, 

but she will fight for a chance

to feel that raw purity,

the smooth and slimy and gritty clay

just to have it slip through her fingers.