The Prisoner Poem by Briony Nicholls

What a welcome visitor was she!
A heathen creature beneath a proper veneer
Who shattered the glass of his past dreams!

By the roots of his hair she pulled him upright
Never before did he find himself so forthright
And ensnared by the gaze of Munch's Madonna

He revelled before the beguiling Prima Donna –
Before the seeds of the past took root again
And the vanquished lad started feeling sullen again.

And that's when all the trouble started again
The engulfing sadness rose and rose, only
To snap him back into his prison again