*...silence is not the absence of sound, but something infinitely more than sounds, and the center of a harmony more prefect than anything which a combination of sounds can produce....There is a silence in the beauty of the universe which is like a noise when compared with the silence of God.
-Simone Weil



cheeba

with a start my heart jumps

the howling pup struggles
pounding the cage blocking reach of its exertion

felt like me, blockaded
shut within some confining prison
somewhere in a  coffin dying

its struggling fueled my hidden fright
yanking at some past isolation
some solitary confinement long forgot

my breath labored

my heart raced to avoid entrapment
fleeing the once boxed and tortured hurts

empathy redeemed me

reaching for the crying pup
opened a door to free my repressions

cheeba, cheeba, hampered mutt
unbound the power of past abuse
off'ring hope for uncaging me