The Wall
The absence was the thing she felt Each morning at the dawn When she awoke in total dark The sun was always gone. She picked herself up from the dirt And leaned against the wall The mass that towered overhead To block out one and all. The stone was cool beneath her touch Refreshing in the heat Of memories and scattered thoughts She marveled, quite a feat For here it stood, to block the sun Whose rays now found the moon But once had blistered mortal flesh Before it was bestrewn That day, the wall began to form Constructed brick by brick To purge the pain of want away The day her heart grew sick And so it stood, so grandiose The edges teemed with moss The wall erected in her name A monument to loss The shadow cast was comfort first, A shield to mask the light But as the days in darkness passed She came to hate her plight. The girl, she grew to hate the wall, Each stone, each brick, each piece, She screamed and raged against the rock In hopes of its decrease. Her fists met rock with brutal force. Her skin was scraped and raw But on she punched and clawed and kicked To hell with this damn wall. But brick is made of stronger stuff Than man, whose flesh and bone And thought the woman tried her best, She could not break the stone. Just then, her blood began to boil And in a state of shock, She dug her nails into the wall And latched on to the rock. She pulled herself up by the rock. Her pace was steady, slow. For if the wall refused to give, Than over she would go. Her nails, they dug into the stone, Her fingers bled and shook, But nearer, nearer to the top With every step she took. The sky above grew closer still. Her climbing nearly done, She poked her head above the rock To catch sight of the sun. But fate had never been her friend And steady though she gripped, The stone beneath her broke away And from the wall she slipped. The girl fell backward from the wall. Her lips, they made no sound. The sky above her shrunk away And then she hit the ground. A crumpled mass upon the dirt, So clearly fate had won. The game was lost. She closed her eyes And gave up on the sun.
