Tall Walls

A Barren Land
snow dancing in the wind
like little ballerina princesses
in the Nutcracker
so cold, it sweeps through your heart
as if trying to freeze time
breath shuddering

Before you...

before you I had a great towering wall
towering o'so very tall
it protected me in my own world
I watched the world go by
through a small peep hole
between the lumbers

when I first was
I sat there cold swifting through
not nearly as cold was cold
it was like the early morning crisp
bundle up for the cold
or don't
because you always seem to be warm
in the back of my mind
I knew it would get colder

so I hugged my blanket close
soon, though,
the comforts of my blanket were worn
and it got colder
so I built a great towering wall
towering o'so tall
at first it started out small
it took so long to build
but even longer to perfect
I hammered each stump
each stump of traits
hammered into my heart

then one day
when I was working
o'so diligently
the wall grew more
nasty monsters have come to scratch
to scratch away my life
but my wall grew more
and I...
I grew too
into the wall
and there I stayed
and there I cried
my peep hole abandoned
my work left behind

my body transformed
into fibers of wood
my body rolling with
each lumber
at first I liked it
my wall grew more each day

one day my wall stopped
the monsters had come
for feeding
I hid myself
but it didn't matter
if they scratched the dirt
I hurt
if they scratched the wall
I hurt more
I wasn't just building the wall
I was the wall
Everything I acted to be
And everything I was

I was still perfecting when you came
and somehow you knew
you knew that I was lonely
gazing from the wall
longing just to be free
it was me who imprisoned me

some how you saw my tears
you picked some of the termites
from me
you filled a few holes then you left
I cried so much
that the trees,
the long-standing lumbers,
melted away,

and there I sat
and here I sit
still there, still here

watching the snow dance
like Ballerina fairies
from the Nutcracker
with my breath shuddering
hugging my rag
it was a blanket
it had all my comfort
now its torn, ripped
like a person's memory
in the early stages
of amnesia
like my happy memories