Outside

Outside the mechanisms buzz.
People going here. People going there.
Trivial deals. Minor deadliness.
Yet all is quiet inside.
His world is static; but not calm.

The inside fears the outside.
There is a gulf between.
To jump the chasm it is to risk all.
To risk his very life.
What hope is there for him?
What chance of escape?
He built his own prison.
And hides the keys from himself.
The prison is his protection.
Its walls keep all at bay.
The outside is another world.
A world viewed like a TV show.

Rather a voyeur than a do-er.
Rather watch the world go round. (Watch it do its business.)
Rather die a kind of death than risk it.
Rather live inside. Alone.