What is holding us back?

Poem:

Everyone’s asleep
Except for a handful
The Warden has allowed
To get up and move about

These chosen few
Friends of me and you
We sit around a circle
Talking and laughing
     â€œAll praise to the Warden!”

The light streams down
From the window above
A mighty, solid beam
Alive on the prison floor

And yet, between turns
Glancing around
Beyond the circle
Beyond the sleeping masses

The wall behind
Is no wall at all
But a mighty gate
That’s flung wide open

The song of countless birds
The scent of open roses
The beauty of the field
Entrancing to behold

A question arises
“Why are we sitting here?
Why not get up and leave?
What’s keeping us down here!”

But who can one ask
Maybe they all know
Maybe the door so open
Is just a cruel joke

There may be a hidden mystery
Some unwritten rule
Forbidding us from leaving
Declaring this as home

And yet what harm in asking
Friends all loved so much
In case there is no reason
In case we all break out

And then it is there
Suddenly noticed
A sign in big bold letters
Beside the prison gate

“All travelers of the valley
All prison escapees
Must make their lonesome way
Must go forth unimpaired”

And now it all makes sense
The spaces in the circle
The whispers on occasion
As one got up and left