I once lived inside a cage,
and people told me I could fly. ?
So I tried that—flying—
and guess what? It was a lie. ????

For the bars were not made
of mere, thin metal, ?
and the key lie yards away,
in the hand of the devil. ??? ?

He told me I would surely die,
if he let me out, ?
that flying took more courage
than my self-doubt. ??? ?

Well, in my cage I was held
up very high, ?
and a single tear formed
and fell from the sky. ??? ?

I had looked up and realized
how close I was,
?to touching it, flying,
like an angel does. ??? ?

Worse than being impossible,
it was so near, ?
and the only thing stopping me
was my fear. ????

Even knowing this,
I couldn’t get free, ?
the devil held me hostage
and hid the key. ????

Until the tear that had fell
kissed the barren ground— ?
his cage, Hell on Earth—
and so the devil drowned. ????

And yet how could I reach it,
stuck in midair? ?
No way to reach freedom,
so my lips formed a prayer. ??
? ?
The answer came quietly,
as I least expected, ?
Because I knew him as one
I had always rejected. ??? ?

I watched as he ascended
to my cage without wings, ?
and talked with the authority
of a thousand kings. ???

“You can’t save me,” I cried.
“I’ve lost the key.” ?
“There was never such a thing,”
he said cryptically. ??? ?


?I kept on: “I hated you,
“So you’ve forsaken me here.” ?
“No I love you,” he said.
“What I hate is your tears. ????

“Do you think that one drop
on its own filled the earth? ?
Or that a girl in a cage
can know what she’s worth? ??? ?

“I was there all along,
but you couldn’t see.
You were chasing a lie,
the distraction—the key.

“False hope is designed
by the One Who Kills.
Mine is real, and its waiting—
but you choose, free will.

“The first time you called me
I heard you and came, ?
Then I killed your jailer
and I took the blame.” ??? ?

I asked him to explain
what he meant to say…
“There’s always a price,
and a debt to pay.”


I soon became aware that
we had switched places.
He was trapped by the bars
that his love erases.

This seemed to me as
a horrible trade.
???Until the cage was proven
a mere charade.

It vanished like smoke,
the once-sturdy vise.
And when I looked in his eyes
I glimpsed paradise.

My choice was then made,
and I told him so.
“I’ll love you forever,
go wherever you go.”

“Then come fly with me.”
“But I have no wings.” ?
He said, “What do you need
of such silly things? ??? ?

“That was the first lie,
the floor of your cage, ?
and the bars came next,
from despair and rage. ??? ?

“Yet the greatest lie of all—”
and I began to understand — ?
“Was believing in a prison
you built firsthand.”