Love in a Cage

By Sophie Rouméas

Photography by Alex Liew

I wish a freed love with you,

a love that flies like a dragonfly,

lights like a Good Luck lantern,

pollinates like a hummingbird,

reverberates like a drum.

I wish a succulent love with you,

a love that tastes like a piece of heaven

and smells like the finest rose

in the finest garden.

I wish us to be a new specie

who dares to date

despite religion, philosophy,

conventions—

any differences.

You and I are not staying in the cage,

we are journeying together.

The sky becomes our room; clouds, our bed;

stars, our candles; the moon, our piece of art;

and the sun, our alchemist,

joins with our new waters

to grow new flowers on earth.