I'm a prisoner of conscience, I'm a man without a name,
and a cell of your own making don't make much for staying sane.
I've clawed these walls so often that my nails have almost gone,
sometimes I wonder what it is that keeps me hanging on.
I realise that, in your eyes, my truth becomes a crime,
but I've been crossing of the lines and I believe I've done my time;
I'm getting tired of all these ghosts that never tire of haunting me,
tired of all those prayers for amnesty.

Yet when I close my eyes, I'm where the moonlight
shines upon the sea;
two lovers hand in hand along the sand are walking, endlessly
with the stars of heaven shining in the ocean, there below…
oh there's a beauty only prisoners might know,
such a beauty only prisoners might know.

I'm a prisoner of conscience I've been tested, I've been tried,
found guilty where I stand between your world and my desires,
spread on my cross of compromise, I wait to greet the dawn…
and with every hour ……another thorn.

So many were the reasons, now so many are the rhymes,
So many words inferred by those who'd read between these lines,
So much to lose by those who choose to show their secret hand,
as any prisoner of conscience will understand.

But when I close my eyes I'm where the moonlight
shines upon the sea,
two lovers hand in hand along the sand go walking, endlessly,
as if no power on Earth could break them, I watch them as they go,
and there's a need only a prisoner might know,
such a need only a prisoner might know.

Now in the darkness we lie waiting for a voice to call our names;
we may pray in different tongues but still the prayer remains the same,
for there's a love in truth, and a truth in love, no lies could ever change,
as any prisoner of conscience might well explain.
When we close our eyes we're where the moonlight
shines upon the sea,
with just one shrug of mind we can leave behind these shackles
and be free,
flying high on wings of wonder… places you might never go…
for there's a freedom only prisoners might know,
such a freedom only prisoners might know.
© Steve O'Kane