The Wall

When I was a child,

My father warned me to never climb the wall of our city.

“Beyond the wall, child,

You will find danger.”

​

I grew to be a young man,

Heeding the advice of my father.

The wall was built and fortified,

It means to protect us.

​

Within me, a curiosity began to grow,

How may I feel safe if I do not know danger?

My questioning moved my feet towards the wall,

Until I stood at the base of it, looking upwards.

​

I placed my hand on the wall,

And heard my fathers warning again.

“Beyond the wall, child,

You will find danger.”

​

I began to scale the wall,

Carefully placing my hands and feet on each protruding stone.

One misstep,

And I could plummet to my demise.

​

I reached the top of the wall,

And as I was about to descend,

I met another atop the wall,

Our eyes met with wonder and curiosity.

​

“Why do you climb the wall”, she asked me.

“I must know what danger lies ahead to feel safety”, I replied.

“I climb the wall from the other side to find that same answer”, she said.

“You must be the danger”, I replied.

​

Days turned to years,

And I met her upon the top of the wall,

Never descending to the other side.

With time we grew to love each other.

​

One day I climbed atop the wall,

And sat beside her.

“If this is the danger our fathers spoke of,

I would never feel safe again”, she said to me.

“It is not danger that I have found climbing this wall.

It is the safety and comfort of my heart that you have come to possess.

This wall is our chapel,

Upon it we may bind our souls together”, I replied.

​

With years and time,

The wall came to crumble.

It stood only at its foundation,

A mere shell of its former self.

​

As we grew old,

I would meet my beloved at the wall,

And we would climb upon it.

Our bones had grown weak, and our bodies old. It was the perfect height for us.

​

One day I went to where the wall once stood, and she did not come.

My father’s words etched in the last stone left:

“Beyond the wall, child,

You will find danger.”

​

[1](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/9toiv9/selling_our_dreams/e8yg0tv/)

[2](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/9tlb39/disquietude_haiku/e8yg6ra/)