(DRAFT)

FENCE

I’m making my way through the
Valentine’s Day snow
Thinking of all the things
I’ll do for love
Here in the frigid aftermath of this “fifty-year storm”
that’s dominated all the local news
(Politics is taking a long overdue break)
and life is pretty much shut down
beyond the confines of people’s humble abodes
But I venture out
unable to resist
As if this were childhood that came roaming back from wherever it went
Steady as I go
“Steady as you go”
Maybe my mother and father gently told me that
as I was getting the hang of taking my first steps
just a little slipping now and then
Hoping my internal gyroscope does not let me down
Not right now please
As I’m waddling past this poor excuse for a fence
weathered and
worse for the wear with ample evidence of past collisions or break-ins by criminals
Who wouldn’t take no for an answer
This old eyesore of a fence broken out in sections
letting things in and letting things out while I’m keeping things in
mainly
and only letting things out in the form of these few lines that came to me
Right through this fence.

2.14.21