They were all trapped.
Like rats in a cage.
Only they had hopes.
They had dreams.
They had plans of leaving.
Moving on to bigger and
better things.
But if they ran, they
ran on a treadmill.
The kind that count your calories
burned, miles ran, and monitored
your heartbeat.
"Look, you've run 90 miles,
Look, you've burned x calories."
But where has it got me?
Where am I?
They all wondered what had they
accomplished.
"You're here." You're nowhere.
Some of them broke loose
off the treadmill,
running on solid ground.
"I've made it!"
They rejoiced.
Suddenly it was a joke.
Suddenly things began to
look like a film reel looped
over and over and over the
same background played.
The same tree, the same house,
the same store.
Running and running and really
getting nowhere...
"Stop!"
And all of a sudden the ground was
moving backward and there was
the treadmill.
There was the cage.
Only with a new lock.
A new set of bars.
It was too hard to leave
and maybe they liked
counting calories and miles
and monitoring their heartbeat.
But I had to get out.