Walls Poem by Francie Lynch

From first flesh we walk down widening halls
That lead to lives of wonderous walls.

Our spidered fingers gripped walls of brick,
Cruets, cups and candle sticks.
Incense burned near open graves,
When we two believed we too were saved.

Within Annex walls we learned our phonics,
On tin-roofed walls we lived our comics.

Garage walls scaled showed distant views,
Kitchen walls steamed soups and stews.

Our school yard walls tallied pitches,
To mark our summers of youth and wishes.

Now lift memory's pane and go back,
To boarded walls of a secret shack.
There in confusion we would cling
To the unknown wonders girls could bring.

These young boys' walls are but a few,
New walls arose as we did too.
Coffee House walls offered all that's new.

Wet kisses lingered near shadowy walls,
While a poem's recited in a backroom stall.
Black lights and posters draped lofty walls,
And recreationals made our new skin crawl.

Cliff walls were breached by stairs of clay,
Carved by Incas on a turquoise day.
Tent walls echoed with impish fray,
Green walls beckoned at the end of day.

Those walls gave rise to hot desires,
Where Vikings planned funeral pyres.
New music, cheers and weekend guests
Stood us erect to pound our chests.

Those walls no longer ring our shores,
Time swept us forward with worldly lures.
We doffed our coats of suede and frills,
And donned new clothes and worldly skills.

The walls of work are a stony climb,
We left old walls for the more sublime.
These towers and turrets of heart and hearth,
Guard all we know of any worth.

I see walls recede on cliffs and fields:
Where do they lead? What will they yield?
But there three shadows are climbing still
One more wall. Then all is still.