'Just Visiting'
The Prison
The Visit
Barbed wire trails across the skylights;
Steel bars clad the unrelenting doors.
Here there are no hidden highlights,
Where sniffer dogs parade the floors
And keys jangle between guard and cell.
As I'm herded through to patiently wait,
Judge and jailer I'd consign to hell,
When you stand blameless at Heaven's gate.
My hands reach out across the table;
Love's quest against unending years.
A faint smile if you are able,
No tissue for heart-rending tears.
Then comes an order from the distance,
"VISIT OVER!" resounds through stony halls.
Time to subdue my own resistance,
Heed the grim warnings on the walls.
Vain hopes to leap a great divide;
One last wave across a communal room
And my disbelief you're here inside
This cold, grey, Gothic place of gloom
© 2015 Stella Kaye