The Prisoner

[Teratogen]

This one took me well over a week to write, worked on it during odd hours, carefully tried to craft it, attempting to stick within the confines of the pattern and formula, and it is quite long, yes.

The Prisoner

Blessed be the question mark of this heart in pondering
That will from its nest embark on long roads wandering
In search of some great wisdom and in search of wisdom’s lover
In search of all that gives him some great courage to discover
Blessed be the door through which the troops have passed
Armed with hearts so poor and a love that could not last
But this heart to explore all those dangerous parallels
Is preparing to wage war on all love’s infidels

Preparing to wage war he sees restraints of piety
Where the prisoner before had been detained unmercifully
Forgetting only your love held the key

Now empty are those chains you must fill with urgency
Before all that remains is some dead man’s eulogy
Wherein it claims his blessed failure be

And blessed be the hourglass that suffers Time’s neglect
The abandoned sands begin to pass through cause and effect
With no more time to fill, no more sand to be mixed
And no more can its shattered will have reason to be fixed
Blessed be the shame of the heart that wanders aimless
Here given a name by the hearts that remain nameless
Where wild hearts are tame to the wild exploration
Of the kind of love you blame for discomforting causation

The kind of love you blame on the drifter’s curiosity
The prisoner he became due to this wild conspiracy
You told him only your love holds the key

And tasting the subservient fruits of tragedy
His desire now more permanent, his heart in synergy
At the crux where love’s blessed attention be

And blessed be this tourist on your line of self-defense
His judgment so malnourished but his journey so intense
The boundaries forbidden, the boundaries he reached
The boundaries were hidden but had already been breached
Blessed be your shield, your armor and your sword
Upon this battlefield deceived by some overlord
The power that he’d wield betrayed your heart exposed
And vigilance has concealed your tender heart enclosed

Vigilance has concealed the pilgrim’s identity
The prisoner revealed for your vigilant heart to see
He knows only your love holds the key

And labeled as a traitor he takes your scorn so faithfully
But he is no dictator; he just wants your sympathy
As only love’s blessed concession be

And blessed be the doubt on which your prudence must depend
Were you disappointed I turned out to be a lover instead of a friend?
I fought here as your ally, I fought against resent
I fought with the rationale I could be so relevant
Blessed be the sun to rise that promises a hopeful dawn
I have traveled in disguise from Paradise to Babylon
But I severed all those ties back in pleasant Purgatory
And I told myself those lies for the sake of greater glory

I told myself those lies and locked them into chivalry
The prisoner that cries he was conquered forcefully
But only your love holds the key

And this wanderer was captured as a disgraceful enemy
His body now enraptured with his punishment of apathy
Where he senses his blessed hours be

And blessed be the drag inhaled from love’s thin cigarette
Like the gift of my white flag impaled upon your bayonet
The heart and mind bewildered, the heart and mind with conviction
The heart and mind breathe in unfiltered to sustain addiction
Blessed be your ironfisted law, how I misread it
When true happiness existed I never gave myself the credit
So that luxury I resisted but your smile was applied
To the knot of love untwisted, the string of broken hearts retied

The knot of love untwisted by the hands of tyranny
The prisoner enlisted to the ranks of slavery
Where only your love holds the key

And under your oppression he observes humility
With his newfound profession he’ll have earned his degree
Where the scholar’s blessed studies be

And blessed be the duty I must attend to by routine
I sing praises to your beauty until the night and day convene
Praises sung aloud, praises seldom heard
Praises I had vowed with every single word
Blessed be the gaunt whose feast is beckoning
Your heart so nonchalant in its love for everything
But this kind of ghost shall haunt that territory overstepped
With the kind of love you want but just cannot accept

The kind of love you want in its full transparency
The prisoner you taunt with paranormal liberty
Saying only your love holds the key

Even if you never granted this offender amnesty
Still he falls into an enchanted state of reverie
Precisely where love’s blessed welcome be

And blessed be the rhyme in the scriptures of desire
Aging well with time but longing to retire
This gospel’s words so tender, this gospel spoken sweetly
This gospel of surrender that destroys my heart completely
Blessed be the sound of the indecisive choice
Taking shelter underground atop the mountain of my voice
Where fear wanders around to survey all it sees
And confusion then is found in your well of mysteries

Confusion then is found in the battle to be free
The prisoner unbound becomes chained by your decree
That only your love holds the key

And this soldier of misfortune tries to bargain with his plea
To keep his heart important as a romantic refugee
Who knows where his blessed devotion be

And blessed be the war dance of religious disconnection
You the death of romance, I the resurrection
You poor helpless child, you must have died for someone’s love
You who’s been beguiled by some crooked magician’s glove
Blessed be the veiled behind this hideous chagrin
My ship already sailed is my ship yet to come in
That breath that I exhaled was the one I held so long
For the last resort has failed to keep the optimism strong

The last resort has failed and for this penalty
The prisoner is nailed to the sacrificial tree
Believing only your love holds the key

But the olive branch is broken and the martyr tries to flee
And from the dream awoken he is back in custody
Where it remains his blessed honor be

And blessed be the measure of the wounds we try to heal
Those scars of displeasure to remind us how we feel
Where it remains this bond won’t break apart, it remains the scab still bleeds
It remains that in my soiled heart I still plant those seeds
Blessed be the earth and sky, the sun in their thrall
Where the phoenix goes to fly and where Icarus will fall
Where the joyful must comply with their impending loneliness
And where it’s clear that I am most familiar with this

Where it’s clear that I have failed in victory
The prisoner will try to regain his dignity
If it’s true only your love holds the key

He feels his weakened legs as he sinks to one knee
He prays and he begs to receive your clemency
And bows his head where the blessed altar be

And blessed be the solitude where contrition has begun
We died in timeless interlude and lived a thousand years in one
Foregoing all we came for, forgiving all that’s left
Forever being blamed for this uncompromising death
Blessed be the grave to be filled through circumstance
That love would try to save if you had given it a chance
The walls of dirt concave with the swelling of remorse
And buried with the brave the heart and mind divorce

Buried with the brave and their espoused apology
The prisoner enslaved to the corpse of bravery
Still only your love holds the key

But forsaken is the vagabond that kneels in front of thee
Struggling to correspond with your saintly charity
Where the denial of his blessed petition be

And blessed be the next poor fool that tries to win your hand
The one exception to the rule awaiting your command
With your desire to subdue, his desire to outlast
Your desire for the new just to spite me from your past
Blessed be the grievance that you choose not to hear
You with your heart’s impedance, you whose conscience remains clear
And like those antecedents and their great demise thereof
Here I still pledge allegiance to a lovelorn god of love

I still pledge allegiance as this god abandons me
The prisoner gives credence still to love’s divinity
Knowing only your love holds the key

The risk to challenge faith from agony to ecstasy
The reward to be vouchsafed in this fervent memory
Where only your blessed essence be

And blessed be the listener of this story often told
Who is just another prisoner that you have controlled
Learning and assessing, returning even so
And yearning for each blessing that you may bestow
Blessed be the sum of the parts that all bear witness
To irreparable damage done and those hearts that seek forgiveness
But the further you outrun, the closer you will get to them
I know that’s the place I’m from; I know that’s who I am

That’s the place I’m from, there in my captivity
The prisoner you’ve become to your own ideology
And only your love holds the key

If we misconstrue it all as the course of destiny
This will be the funeral; this will be the legacy
Wherein our blessed future be