Title: Spectral World Medium: Digital Art (Drawing) Artist: Celina Day ((First Place Winner!!))

Clawz Caught In A Cage Poetry by: Tara Zamani ((2nd Place))

I am the lion you shackle in a cage.

When I sleep in the same slump of silt as yesterday, 

I hear the words of power and pride

from the savage souls of people swishing by. 

When they throw the thickest piece of meat directly in front of me, 

I think of how my claws, now frail and cracked, used to be the strongest of traps. 

I resent the way they glare through the mockingly thin iron gates,

and stick their feeble fingers through the fissures that lock me in. 

There is nothing more gallant than a lion, played for a fool, in a crate. 

Sometimes I fear they have beaten my dark jagged soul,

and slammed the doors closed to my past life.

To survive, I wrap myself around the deep feelings that cause me to wince.

I cry out, with pathetic roars, to be carried away in a brisk wind. 

I like to run away from the world into my dreams. 

From within myself, I find a place of lush green,

where I can frolic in the sun and run for miles at a time.

When I dream, I play with my own prey and 

follow my pack into the bright yellow day. 

Every time I open my eyes to see the dull gray chains

and static chatter of the beasts around me,

I know this is not the life I was born to live.