If I Were a Poet

From inside your cage, gaze,
gaze outward
with pale luminescent eyes.
Let thoughts of exotic islands
enter your starless night
to hush the sounds of fangs and claws
hungering for your flesh.

Sweet child curled in the corner, gaze,
gaze outward,
past the waxy claws of scorpions,
past the ferns and dragonflies.
See somewhere a lotus garden,
where this night ends,
and something unknown and unknowable begins. Gaze,
gaze outward
and dream.