Open Range Magazine and Amanda Smith

Open Range Magazine is a magazine truly delivering great colorful articles about life in the read west... but from time to time an article, short story or a poem comes across my desk, whether from my own hand or someone elses, that I feel inclined to share.  This Poem is titled "Sweet Southern Comfort" and there is no mention of the title at all throughout the poem, leaving the reader quite mystified as to the "who".....

From the Heat of the flames of that Sweet Southern Comfort

She is a lion
and she paces...
back and forth
from wall to wall
her mane is red... and wild

her memory is filled with life
chance encounters when the walls are down
swaying back and forth she slowly moves
rhythm that is more than music

the fire is hot, close to her as she sways
breathing upon her neck
heat surrounding her body
feelings that were buried deep within
nothing will stop her from succumbing

it is more than a need
that which has breathed life
back into her desperate heart
as she begins to pace again
from wall to wall
her mane is red...and wild

the sounds of the memories outside her cage
are all that she has left
but they are enough... for now... they are enough

and she falls
down onto the concrete floor
a gentle sleep, she dreams
chance encounters when the walls are down
and the fire comes to her again
he breathes upon her neck
his heat surrounds her body
movement to music she only hears while she sleeps
on the concrete floor, amidst the walls of her cage
she succumbs to that which can save her

the dream of the freedom that comes without walls
as the fire comes to her again...