The thing about a cage

Is it keeps things out

And things in

At the same time

My bedroom has become my cage of choice lately

I wake up to the sun shining through my orange lace curtain

In a fit of desperation I hung it over the curtain fixture one night

To cover the gap where the vertical blinds used to hang

Three panels fell down like missing teeth

That was years ago

.

But it didn't bother me really until I got new neighbors

Neighbors that leave their porch light on all night long

On most nights

The light streams into my window and wakes me up

Out of a dead slumber

The mystery of whether it will be on

Or off

Or on

Or off

Each time I wake up drives me mad

But some would say the drive to madness isn't such a long drive

.

But at times the light shining through the orange lace curtain

Is a beautiful thing

It makes my cage not so hard to bear

As the shadow of the lace falls across my face

 I live in Orange County CA. I didn't realize until after I wrote this poem, that many people refer to Orange County as living 'behind the orange curtain' and now I literally live behind it.