Self-Made Cage

A silence descends

It falls over us in our self-made cage

We sit and stare at nothing,

at anything but one another

Anxiety once seeped into me at the sight and at the thought of you, did it hold you prisoner too?

Did you pick apart every little word spoken and unspoken as I did too?

Now, I am used to it.

Now, there is no need.

What we have ebbs and flows,

as a tide stuck in slow motion.

Our self-made cage is figurative, as is the carousel we ride.

Perhaps the thread tying us together will one day snap.

But today, tomorrow, and the day after that, we will continue to ride.

And if the thread snaps, we will keep coming back as we have before, and the time before that.