Deliverance In The Wind Poem by Mark Heathcote

What does it do to free their souls?
From emancipation, what paroles
the shackles that kept them toiling?
Even now, they are leaving.

Some see their deliverance in the wind.
Like a squall, a twister intertwined.
Luminous as sand grains swirling east
to a promised land, generations passed.

Taken but not inclined to fade away,
not inclined to fall now halfway,
not when liberation is at hand.
In the luminous grains of rising sand.

Oh, a sandstorm brings a new dawn.
Each link in the chain is a baton.
Like flailing linen on a washing line,
a mother gave them each a lifeline.

Manacled limbs—they're no longer enslaved.
The yolk of who we are is the ruler of the brave.
I guess their hearts are war chests.
They'll never settle for anything second-best.

They're among the stars.
Rising and falling,
falling and rising
in the great outdoors.



Ekphrastic writing challenge
In the Clouds, by Jacek Malczewski (Poland) 1894