Cage

By Charles Mallio, Jr

Cage is the culmination of a creative process that spans two decades. It is poetry that speaks to us all -- embracing our loves, hates, fears, dreams, ambitions, regrets, and dark desires.

Updated and edited for this tenth anniversary digital edition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charles Mallio, Jr
• Release date: Nov 5, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452317090

Book preview

Cage

10th Anniversary Digital Edition

by

Charles Mallio, Jr.

Smashwords Edition

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Published by

Charles Mallio, Jr. on Smashwords

Cage

10th Anniversary Digital Edition

All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2010 by Charles Mallio, Jr.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

The original edition of this book is available in print at most online retailers.

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For David—dare to dream

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Table of Contents

Preface to the 10th Anniversary Digital Edition

Preface

Introduction

I. Finding My Way

Justify My Love

Send Me Back

Baggage

Footsteps

You Could Not Live Their Lie

On Suicide

Advice

II. Mind's Eye

So Only New Nevadans Eat Their Socks?

Deep Visions

Darkness of a Dream

Incubus

Two Truths

Stark Wyoming Night

Searching

Anger Burning

In A Dangerous Way

From the Mind of the Killer

Voices of Choices

Manhunter

Jimmy Lives in Darkness

Harbinger of Lunacy

Premonitions

Whispers

Same Tired Story

Typical Day

Nancy is a Witness

Venom

Seconds

Sins of Our Time

Exit

III. Roses and Broken Hearts

It Was Fate

A Brighter Day

Risk

Where the Emptiness Was

For The Taking

Too Good To Be True

Worth The Wait

Let Me In

Before You

The Me Inside of Me

You Are My Inspiration

Games

What My Heart Says

Wherever It May Lead Us

Unrequited Love

I Still Need You

No Savior

Another Chapter

Second Time Around

My Midnight Friend

Then I Met You

Time Stands Still

Worth Another Try

The Path

Take This Heart

That Special Place

The Only One

IV. Abundantly Human

Be Careful

The Man I Never Knew

Crossroads

Why Do You Suffer Alone With Your Pain?

Long, Hard Road

Perfect Man

Peril of the King

My Brother's Keeper

Runaway

So Lost Inside

Disarray

Beauty in a Brutal World

Awaken

Way Too Fast

No Way Back

V. Social Distortion—Politics As Usual

Death in the Desert

Deadline

Angels On Fire

House of Shame

Pull the Lever

Mixed Motivations

Down in Texas

VI. True Waltz Time

What Ever Happened?...

Here I Go Again

Down This Road

For the Rest of My Life

I Won't Let You Down

Undercover Agents

Tomorrow's Memories

Complications

Dancing on the Minefield

Through the Darkness

Pieces of You

Just A Fool

Index by Title

Index by Date

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Preface to the 10th Anniversary Digital Edition

The print edition of Cage was published in the autumn of 2000, a labor of love that collected a lifetime of poetry. In deciding to publish a book of poetry I was not seeking fame or riches; most poets have neither. Rather, I was fulfilling a desire to share the product of hundreds of solitary hours of writing, with the hope that someone might read the result and be inspired, or at least entertained.

Traditional publishing is not an easy game, but by the year 2000 advances in print-on-demand (POD) publishing made it easy for authors to get their books in print. This is what allowed Cage to find its way into print. Without POD, this book may never have happened.

In the decade since, technology has advanced much, and now ebooks have given authors a whole new medium by which to reach their audience. Books can now be read on virtually any device with a screen, from a PC to a cell phone to a digital music player. And the ease of publication and distribution exceeds even that of print-on-demand titles.

With the tenth anniversary of the publication of Cage looming, I thought it would be fitting to mark the occasion by issuing an updated release in an updated format. I hope you enjoy this tenth anniversary digital edition of Cage…on whatever screen you prefer.

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Preface

This collection takes its name from one of the first poems I ever wrote, Opaque, Translucent Cage. In a sense, this was the first poem I wrote that made me feel like a poet. In 1984, it took first prize in my Junior High School poetry contest. Frankly, as I read it now, I find the poem overwrought and melodramatic. In fact, the original title was Life—As Seen Through the Eyes of One Who Knows of Him Who Dwells, Enveloped In, the Opaque, Translucent Cage. At least I had the sense to shorten the title before I submitted the poem for judging!

So why include it here then—and name a collected life’s work for it? Because it was the spark that lit a greater fire, and it started me down a path of creativity that I may not have otherwise traveled. Besides, it is instructional, as it does contain thematic elements that would surface in my later work. Sometimes the words of the child can provide insight into the nature of the man to be…

Opaque, Translucent Cage

Living behind the bars of the opaque, translucent cage is inconceivable to most of us, for we've lived much of our lives inside the dark cell, but then we were set free, not being chosen to face a far worse fate: the opaque, translucent cage.

The enveloping monster, with its transparent, night black bars which are ten feet thick and paper thin, and the claustrophobic aloneness of existence inside it, never did claim us. We were the lucky ones!

And, as for the lucky ones of us who can vaguely conceive life inside the cage, the cage dwellers are grateful for our presence. Though it is not they who should feel grateful, but we who should feel obliged because the pressure of life inside the cage falls upon the shoulders of those who have conception of both lives but are too naive to know when and how to break