repeating childhood memories

put me on exhibit. show me off to the crowd. parade me through the streets. i share the lion's eyes. a hopeless shade of grey. looking past rusty, metal bars out onto a world of vivid color. both tamed and trademarked in a distant, corporate cubicle. the simple diversion of children's dreams is the only thing keeping this place from becoming a burial ground. all my limbs are now vestigal and the roots are creeping up and starting to swallow me. but life wasn't always so confined. the laughter outside almost conquers the silence when i think about the freedom that once covered me. i was once liberated but now ive lost my way. this maze is making me sick and each wrong turn is paved by the walls of my ever-beating heart. even if i called out to you for help, my every word would be caught between the bars of their ivory prison. my life without you is a never ending trip to the zoo.