Crack in the Wall

I made a promise to myself

That I would wake in whimsy-mind

Tales worth the top shelf

And fine cigars, by design

 

And when I woke, in weather fair

Clouds strewn across the lacy sky

The breeze was kind and chilled with care

Steeped in pirates, knights, and spies

 

I took my place on the garden bench

Opened my case of tradesmen tools

Not hammers or pliers, nor a wrench

Just papers and inks that delight such fools

 

Uncapping pen, and shoulders square

I leaned to stain the paper black

But such it was, as justice fair

Lifting my eyes, I saw a crack

 

The fine brick house which knew me well

Settled deep upon the earth

Each season it would sink and swell

Developing a broadened firth

 

Everything fell from my head

The elves and goblins of distant lands

My heart sank to my toes like lead

And my composure slipped like Bermuda sands

 

I got up from my garden chair

And walked what felt like leagues across

Over to the fissure there

Mayhaps it was masked with mats of moss

 

How had I not noticed my childhood home

Degrading ‘neath my whole life’s weight

I put such stock in hearth and stone

And now it seems such fitting fate

 

My hands shook and my breath quivered

I came to ponder my heart’s grief

The stories that my mind delivered

Were the chill that colored the autumn leaf

 

I dreamt of lands all far away

I dreamt I sailed all seven seas

I dreamt of willows and of bays

Of weary wand’ring on weary knees

 

My mind was always on what else

Might lie outside my garden’s gates

While my home waited for my tells

To bring me back to linens and drapes

 

My home has loved me all too well

With every brick of its walls

In patience, I was guarded and held

But gave nothing back unto its halls

 

Yet what could I do to restore

The gaping canyon on the wall

I cannot lift the sunken floor

My stories cannot brace the fall

 

So I returned to my place

Under the clouds in the breeze

The sky still adorned in lace

And ink still running with ease

 

That night, as I laid bed

Stories running through my mind

With a groan and creak, I lifted my head

Then I understood, and I cried