Words on Walls

In Durham
Walls are translucent

People can be, too
If you let them
If you let yourself not really look
Let yourself ignore the firmness of their existence
The solidness of their pupils
The stories that threaten to sweep you up
And carry you to blazing mornings, city lights, crumpled dreams and concrete hopes

If you don’t open your ears to the biography of this place, this people
Don’t drink in the midsummer mirages and sweaty bluegrass
And single out the unbearable beauty of the gravely voice
The reasons why those legs are tired and she sits
Satisfied (not spent) at the bus stop
Why he carries packages through the sheets of noontime heat
(For his twin toddlers: their rambunctious curls, their sunny futures)

In Durham
Walls are a
A mile
Or a meal
Or not walking on the side of the street that will make you uneasy (at first)

Or a clouded eye staring down statistics
Or a quick mind tied up in foreign phrases
Or a calloused hand behind the wheel of a bus

In Durham
Walls are for “safety”
Natural and necessary
Not to be scaled
(Except for research or for resumes)

Some people say.

Until the solidness of their pupils
The stories that sweep you up
Until crumpled dreams
And concrete hopes.

11 September 2011