Time encloses,
surely as a wall.
Every day we place
a brick.
Then after years
we look about
and wonder,
how on earth
we became
so trapped.
What is it about
the wild,
that seeks to disturb
the very ground
on which we’ve built
ourselves?
Cracks begin to show
in even the strongest
and most beautiful.
Weathering,
and ice fracturing,
soon make short work
of the structures we’ve built
to support our lies,
protect our hearts.
But, from what?
What are we afraid of?
The clean air
and wide open sky?
The wildlife,
or the winter cold?
The work,
or the hardship,
or the dark stranger
who visits us
in the night?
Is that why we hide
behind tall spires
of rebar, glass, and concrete?
Walls,
within walls,
within walls.
So inundated by sound
we cannot hear
the decrepitude
of our own hearts.
Away from who we are,
or who we might be;
maybe we’ve been
running away for centuries?
Our own fear
driving us to go,
to travel,
to explore,
and to kill the other.
We enter this world alone,
and we leave it just the same.
Just us,
pure,
in our nature.
HG – 2022
