Refugees of Reason

A Fence That Was So Much More Useful Than It Is Today

Staring across this barbed wire fence bordering our farm,
Running athwart a flat, austere land, grain elevators appear
To wash very close, though nearly twelve kilometres away:
Looking past a fence, thinking back in time as I linger here:
A fence that was once so much more useful than it is today.

I passed often through this fence to test my adolescence,
To leave briefly, return safely, then reach again for more;
This land, this place where my youth was in development,
When family, taken for granted, sometimes rubbed sore;
Nevertheless a home, a youth, a life that was content.

Eventually I journeyed beyond this fence, only to return
When occasional visits were for family get togethers,
Festive weddings, or sadly, for the funerals of those
High school friends, aunts, uncles and neighbours
That passed from this world into the one they chose.

Though it's time now to once again pass across this fence,
To travel this highway just outside this minor impediment,
It's plain that within this fence, a sanctuary remains to me —
Though I'm saddened and contemplate this sentient moment,
This fence remains more useful today than I could first see.

Once again I cross this fence, to come and go into this world,
Till a time when others, perhaps sons, perhaps daughters,
Perhaps younger heirs: will cast me up into the summer breeze
And my soul will cross this fence once more to join my forebears
As my ashes land upon the wheat fields and among the trees.

~gtk