The walls of life are everywhere.
Low and far off in the distance,
And moving fast like a tsunami.
The walls of life are right in front of you,
Packed tightly all around, just out of reach,
Like groping in a dark closet.
The walls of life loom high above you
Like a canyon of buildings,
Narrowing as they stretch downtown.
The walls of life surround you like a secret garden
Of solitude, where the wisteria and clematis pour
Over the top in green waves.
The walls of life are built with bricks
Made of expectations, where every ought, every should,
Every must builds the walls higher and higher.
The walls of life are the masks we wear,
The death shroud of unfriendliness,
The golden shield of professionalism.
The walls of life are the distance we keep
In the presence of pain, in the fear of the other,
In the distrust we cannot resolve.
The walls of life are the hesitation
Before an act of compassion, before a kind word of support,
Before a moment of injustice, when we decide who we are.
The walls of life are the fences of vulnerability,
Where we allow people to see just enough
Into our lives to see if we are still alive.
The walls of life show up in the most unexpected places,
In the fear of being seen, exposing our true selves
We see at the center of things that the walls of life are everywhere.
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