Threads and Knots

She unwound the threads
trying to release the knots
and free the trapped prisoner
she’d caged for so long.

After months of imprisonment,
it walked out a free bird,
brimming with hope and faith
of new beginnings and forgotten pasts

With impressions of freedom,
and illusions of peace,
it took two steps in front
under the confident assumption,
that the knots were now untied.

But with an unexpected jolt
it staggered backwards,
three steps behind the starting line
with no clue how, or why, or what
had prematurely curbed
its blissful notions of freedom

The knots of fear had opened
in eager anticipation of being proven wrong;
but the threads of trust were too strong,
unwilling to let go and slip away
into yet another abyss of pain.

The threads are wearing out
but are reluctant to let go;
How much longer do we hold on?
When will they feel assured
that the threads that once broke
and had to be forcefully tied together,
are now willing to let loose,
hoping to build uncoerced knots
that aren’t forcibly bound
to hold fractured pieces together?