Memories Like a Falling-Down Fence

Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved.

On days like today

My memories are like a falling-down fence

Listing under a lead-gray sky

The posts that seemed so strong and firm in early childhood

Were soon betrayed for what they really were

No foundation

No root

No inherent strength

Nothing to support the boundaries they insistently set

That was actually a good thing.

Had they been stronger

I might never have escaped

But escape I did

And have

Never fully, of course

Those posts, they move

They will always try to follow me

To fence me in

To reach me with their barbed strands

And pull me back into a place where I don't belong

Cutting, piercing, not flesh but spirit

Drawing forth blood and pain

But scars heal
As do tears
And tears

And even broken,
Limbs and heart alike reknit but roughly
It's better

Better than what we would call
The fenced place
That name we know so well
Not only of the land
A reservation of the spirit

And so the fence falls down
Its posts no stronger
Than those that tried 
And failed 
To contain
To hold
To bind and bound
Our ancestors' spirits

I took my chance long ago
Stepped over that falling-down fence
Memories are all that remain to bind me
And they, too, have begun to descend to the earth
Leaving a path

Strewn with wire
But a path

And like their spirits
My own is wounded
Healed
But it is free

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.