In the midst of mute and solo lived a strength I never knew,

Till I realized my lost voice echoed deep inside of you.

Like a lost child in a canyon screaming desperately for aid -

I was hungry, thirsty, lonely, frozen, empty and afraid.



In my early baby hopefulness, my voice sang sweet and clear,

But my lifesong only rang out for one very special year;

Then my real world shattered and the fragments fell within,

Till I couldn't find the places where my mind or I begin.



And my mind became a puzzle and its pieces didn't fit.

While I tried to find the world, I could make no sense of it.

In a convoluted tunnel, with an endless case of bends,

I kept searching for an opening but couldn't find the ends.



In my prison of dark silence I kept searching for some light,

But I rarely glimpsed a sunbeam in my world of endless night.

My bleak solitaire confinement had a life all of its own,

And its only real solace dwelt in keeping me alone.



As the world revolved around me, I lived deep within my mind,

While the people looked into my eyes believing I was blind;

And their voices filtered through the crazy hazy in my head,

And it made the people wonder whether I was deaf or dead



Till my empty silence cloaked me in an air of acrid doom,

And my life became a never-ending living breathing tomb

Until one gray day a single ray of sunshine pierced my night,

And my tomb began to fragment into glowing shards of light.



Free at last and me at last, I am prisoner no more;

And I never will return to the me I was before;

And my mind is fully open and my soul is fully free,

And I'll fully be the person I was always meant to be.