While I'm at it, here's another one...

[ladymirth]

The Consequences of Cowardice

She pressed her hands
to the glass as a child,
Then promised to go out
and greet the flowers today
But it looked like rain
and she was afraid of the bees,
So she stayed in till the winds
had blown them all away

She heard the sea gulls
call as a girl
And she raced outside
to meet their cry
But the gates fell shut
and hemmed her in
She hammered her fists
with a relieved sigh

She was a young lass when
she saw the tall spire,
Of the clock tower, rising
above the city lights
She would gain the highest tier,
high as her heart desired
When she learned the secret
of unfalling flight

She was a middle-aged maid
when she saw the stars falling
And knew she would never
know where they fell
For she had lived her life pinning
dreams against her ceiling
And made her childhood home
a lonely cell

She was an old woman dying
when she felt the wind blowing
Towing with it the thousand
scents of the earth
Once, her thoughts in their wake
would be following
Now she cared naught for other
than her home and hearth

She was a corpse when they buried her
just beyond her door
In an unmarked grave soon
become unknown
And in her decaying sleep she still
lies there waiting
Till the day she can face
the world on her own