“Liberation” | Katie Anne O’Gallagher

Kundalini, the personified goddess of latent energy.
The latent energy is in the spinal column.
Strenuous yoga awakens her, and she represents liberation.¹

Liberated by being still

Cetiya, the funeral mound or monument for the Buddha.
A religious sanctity.
Death liberates one from the chains of life.²

Dead lying still

Ksetrapala, a non-liberated male guardian.
Guardian of the Place.
Protector of temple precincts.³

He watches guard but remains still

How could an all-powerful deity be non-liberated?
Did he choose to be latent or do deities lack choice as well?
Does he wish to join the others in the temple?

The worshippers pay him no mind; he watches them leave

My friend’s family kept their dog in a cage almost her whole life.
When we unlocked the cage door, she did not leave.
Why leave the only home you know?

Maybe the chains bring comfort, the cage is too warm to leave

We buried her earlier this year.
Did little old kind Roxy finally find liberation in death?
Death is the only final act.

Her small paw touched the cold tiles, she finally did leave

When I leave, where will I go?
Would the star of the sea⁴ pick me to join her?
I turn on the news and wonder if I have already left.

The newscaster’s interpretations of events are always too loose

All my screens ever show me is fire.
Trees on fire, children on fire.
But those in power ensure that my eyes are deceiving me.

“Wherefore with thee came not all hell broke loose?”⁵

Semiotics is the systematic study of signs and symbols.⁶
Structuralism maps systematic interrelationships between cultural texts and practices.⁷
The systematic, a system of words, signs, texts, and practices, we are confined to.

Despite my best efforts, I cannot break my chains loose

Would studying the technology of the cage liberate us?
Can we use the master’s tools to destroy the house?
Are we free when the house is gone but we stand on its foundation?⁸

“a book of myths in which our names do not appear.”⁹

Liberation?
I thought I knew her but a sly comment from a male friend reminds me that I never met her.
I tried convincing my friend to leave her virulent boyfriend, but she insists that the cage is warm.

And on some days my cage is warm too until I go to leave and the key in my hand disappears

I am sealed off trying to find the key again in my study of symbols and texts.
I look for clues in the literature, and I raise my sign high at the protests.
Yet my screens show a never-ending fire, and when I touch my cage bars my bare hands sizzle.

Those less fortunate than I will keep fighting with the determination to make liberation appear

“Give me liberty or give me death!”¹⁰
What kind of life is that of an animal in a cage?
Liberation or death? Were there ever really other options?

Liberation and death, the most profound transformations

I buried my cousin seven years ago.
A healthy twenty-eight-year-old man’s heart just stopped in the middle of the night.
I see Daniel’s eyes in sunbeams and Roxy running across the craters of the Moon.

“Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change.”¹¹

I have never been known for remaining still.
So, with the eyes of spirits from the past upon me, I will continue to study the symbols.
Either the liberation key will unlock the door, or my corpse will rot in the fire consumed cage.

Living or dead, I will conduct my own metamorphosis

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¹ “Kundalini”, A Dictionary of Hinduism, edited by Margaret & James Stutley, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1977, 156.
² “Cetiya”, Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, edited by Jotiya Dhirasekera, Vol. IV, The Government of Sri Lanka, 1979, 104.
³ “Ksetrapala”, Historical Dictionary of Jainism, edited by Kristi L. Wiley, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2004, 124.
⁴ “Our Lady, Star of the Sea”, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 October 2025, Our Lady, Star of the Sea - Wikipedia
⁵ Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Project Gutenberg, 1992, Paradise Lost | Project Gutenberg
⁶ “semiotics”, Oxford Dictionary of Film Studies, edited by Annette Kuhn & Guy Westwell, ed.1, Oxford University Press, 2012, 366.
⁷ “structuralism”, Oxford Dictionary of Film Studies, edited by Annette Kuhn & Guy Westwell, ed.1, Oxford University Press, 2012, 406.
⁸ Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by Cherrie Moraga & Gloria Anzaldua, Kitchen Table Press, 1983, pp.94-101. Lorde_Audre_1983_2003_The_Masters_Tools_Will_Never_Dismantle_the_Masters_House.pdf
⁹ Rich, Adrienne. “Dive into the Wreck.” Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971-197. W.W. Norton & Company, 1973. 53-55
¹⁰ Henry, Patrick. “Give me liberty or give me death!”, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, edited by William Wirt, published by James Webster, 1817.
¹¹ Shakespeare, William. “Ariel’s Song”, The Tempest, from The Folger Shakespeare. Ed. Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. Folger Shakespeare Library, 30 November 2025, The Tempest - Entire Play | Folger Shakespeare Library

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Katie Anne Frances O’Gallagher is a Junior English and History student with minors in Film and Gender studies at the UAlbany. They are from Queens, New York, and this is their first time being published formally. They enjoy reading either gothic, sci-fi, or historical novels and playing board games with friends.