Castle Door (Poem)

Castle Door

There was a world

A Being-ness

An association of molecules

That existed

Three from now

And four from what was

Where there was

And is

A tall door of 266 feet

On a castle

That was a mountain

Where you lived alone

But I wished together

With me.

I stood in the doorway outside,

Solemnly

For years

Flowers drooping

Clothes dripping

Questioning,

In the shadow of the open, towering door.

You stood within,

Wondering

Enjoying seeing me

But still…

Wondering.

And of its own accord

With a great, demonic, scraping howl

The great door began to swing shut.

And you said you could not come out

For you had no idea how you would return.

And I could not come in

For I had not yet been invited.

And as the doorspace narrowed

And the door’s shadow grew

I saw you in the doorway;

Now a woman

Now a teen

Now a small girl;

Innocent

Scared

Large eyes

Cresting with salty waves

As the door moved ponderously slow

(But with increasing momentum)

Towards the inevitable.

And with monstrous bass

The door closed shut

And

Stared

Back.

And I stood outside the mountain castle

Perceived the approaching night-

And black birds took flight from a distant rim

And I felt a shiver

And pebbles rained on me from above

And I turned and stared over the abyss;

The climb I had made to you.

And I wondered what I would do

And what would become of me

In the moonless black.

And then I heard

From behind the door

A well oiled

Perfectly tuned

Expertly maintained

Lock

Click

Shut.

--Eric Marley

January 2012