Beyond The Wire 

The walls of the system are cold, but not as cold as truth, 

We stood in the shadows, recapturing the ghosts of our youth. 

Inseparable, we walked the yard, bound by the same heavy chain, 

I found a brother in the darkness, a shelter from the rain.

You knew my mind was a labyrinth, wired with delicate thread, 

Where the echoes of abandonment are the only voices I dread.

“I’ve got you”, you whispered, when silence grew too loud to bear, 

A blood-bound loyalty forged in a place built on despair.

I clung to your words, every promise a sacred vow, 

Believing beyond the wire, you’d show me how, 

To breathe again, to finally stand on solid ground, 

That when the gates swung open, a brother would be found.

But the air grew thin the moment you stepped free, 

Leaving nothing but emptiness where a brother used to be.

Then comes the sucker punch-the briefest flicker of your name, 

A call, a text, a ghost of hope to keep me in the game.

Two days of light, just enough to make falling hurt, 

You vanished like the mist, leaving me face down in the dirt.

To reach out then retreat is a cruelty I can’t explain, 

A deliberate twist of the jagged knife, amplifying the pain.

If you meant to leave, why offer up your hand?

Only to pull back, watching me sink into drifting sand.

Now the mental torture spirals, a cage within a cage of steel, 

The agony of a betrayal that feels too sharp to be real.

Isolation’s a heavy cloak, despair a freezing tide, 

Nowhere left to run from the storm raging inside.

You knew the fractures in my heart, the weight I carried,

Yet became the ghost I worked hard to bury. 

I remain behind iron, solid, while your promises decay

Walking the yard where a brother once led the way.