The Red Lion

The red lion  

Captured for your belief

Thrown into hell,A prison cell.

Whereby you can't even see a shimmer of light 

The only light you will see

are the lights that haunt you every day and every night.

The lights in people eyes when they are 

desperately pleading for their life

Hoping for a miracle, a way out. 

 

A shadow of humanity races across the wall 

as the lights in prisoners eyes fade away,

and their last breath gets taken 

  by the merciless captors that make you quiver in your skin 

as you hear footsteps outside the cell 

There's nowhere to hide.

 

That crane you once drove around the city

has become a tool of lynching. 

The devil screaming louder at your feet, 

every day there's another excuse to beat.

A non believer they say

The threat is real 

And you must be punished.

Blood spilled violently over the floor 

but what's more,

your heart is breaking more each day 

as you live in a cycle of the red twisted knife.

Terrified of the day that it slashes your perfect body and mind,

yet simultaneously hoping that execution will arrive so you can open the door of salvation and peace.

What you didn't know

That  someone close to you was banging endlessly at that closed cell door

Trying to get you out 

Into a safe place,

where your dignity and faith can be restored.

A final money slip 

and the mouth of the lion was opened

The light hits you like a heavy brick, freedom shrieks your name 

vibrating at such a high pitch it makes your ears ring,

and even though you're outside, liberated for now.

But that light doesn't turn back on 

You’ve faced too much agony

and there is too much threat  

So you flee

 A photo and a bag of cash is all you clench in your sore brittle hands,

 taking to the unpredictable jaws of the ocean. 

Wind biting at your ears

Bodies packed so tightly.

You can smell trapped human flesh 

children are close to suffocation.

Grown men are dying since their heart can't take the Arctic temperatures 

The water is taking you to safety but at the same time, 

Murdering 

Throwing people out

Swallowing innocent living beings up 

Like a venus fly trap.

Leaving the silhouette of a mottled human body flash across your mind as the raft nearly capsizes.

The rafts filling up with water

And you pray 

To stay alive

and live another day

To see the sun and the moon. 

Miraculously,

your prayers are heard as you tread water

Holding your breath, 

trying to keep your head above the needles of water

Gasping, choking 

you are lifted to safety. 

A lifeboat takes you to the UK 

In hope that you can find that switch to turn on that bright light again. 

Stay sane

there will be a brighter day,

hold your head high,

you deserve to fly and soar 

across that star filled sky where angels kiss your hands and feet.