At Arm’s Length

“Keep things at arm’s length…If you let anything come too near, you want to hold on to it. And there is nothing a man can hold on to.” –Erich Maria Remarque

Walls are not built by accident.

The Great Wall of Keeping You

at Arm’s Length is carefully constructed

by the ones who seek to keep your love

from penetrating the thin covering of

their heart. Don’t shield your eyes,

trying to unsee what you’ve already seen.

When your gaze is obscured by the

bricks being added one at a time,

the unspoken words, lapses in speech,

don’t bother trying to fill the gaps with

the desperate cement of longing gazes

and tumbling words meant to hold

together what has already fallen apart.

There’s always a reason the wall begins

to tower before your eyes, increasing in size

until you can no longer see beyond.

Don’t ignore the presence of a wall,

hoping it will one day liquefy from your

clumsy efforts to grasp what is gone. Walls

do not simply dissolve. The foundation

is too strong. Words they’re afraid to say

build walls, burn bridges, become an optical

depiction of what you’d rather not see.

The illusion lies within you.

Wishing something to disappear does not

make it so. Were it that easy, I never would

have let him go. People don’t suddenly unknow

you, but they can start to unravel love

they once felt for you. So when you see

the walls start to grow, don’t unwish it so

and don’t waste time trying to climb

a wall that was put in place to keep you in yours.

And climbing a wall is not like climbing a tree.

The view will always be obscured, and you’ll see

only what you want to see.

*I started working on this poem today while I was driving. I thought the words would continue to come to me as I cut the grass. But my muse took a break and sat that round out, allowing me to concentrate fully on the grass and that’s all. This still needs work, but I think the message comes across clearly. It’s in the first lines: people don’t build walls by accident. Walls are built to keep someone from getting the wrong idea about their feelings, to keep someone from seeing the truth, or to just keep things from going further than they want them to. Sometimes we ignore signs when entering relationships. This is one that should not be ignored. If a person is building a wall, believe me, there’s a reason.

Peace & Love,

Rosalind