Walls Walls awaken the worry they were meant to ease even as their quadrants warm and contain me. The witch-cruel winds whip outside while inside, I have a mind only to watch the worries multiply because only through upkeep are walls kept up. Laws wall us off from calamity, according to the word of the builders but inside the boundaries of rules, doubts multiply. Do they lie? Disobedience is born as desire to step outside. Laws reign only through the rigors of self-rule, in which we so seldom can abide. Beams cut the earth, forcing you to choose who goes on which side. You must live inside the reality you chose as people rarely let you choose again. So, do I pray for a band of unchosen children to circle my square of sanity until they’ve got my foundations quaking? Would I welcome the trumpet blast that exposes me and mine to the winds and those I’ve kept out? Would anybody? I’m not a builder nor a prisoner. Just a denizen who has purchased and now has to tend. In my walls, doors and windows open to neighbors, strangers, nursery rhymes distorted by an ice cream truck’s rusty speakers. They open to those stuck in here with me. We broom the worries to the corners, paint the walls a warm color we all can live with for a while, and discuss where wisdom resides— In? Out? Between.
Shaun Anthony McMichael is the editor of The Shadow Beside Me (2020) and The Story of My Heart (2021), poetry collections written by trauma-affected youth dealing with mental illness, and instability. Since 2007, he has taught writing to students from around the world, in classrooms, juvenile detention halls, mental health treatment centers, and homeless youth drop-ins throughout the Seattle area. Over 80 of his short stories, poems, essays, author interviews, and book reviews have appeared in publications like The Chicago Tribune, Litro, Bull, Spoon River Review, PopMatters, and more. His debut short story collection, The Wild Familiar, is forthcoming from CJ Press (Fall, 2024). He lives with his wife and son in Seattle where he attends church most Sundays. He hosts an annual literary art reading, Shadow Work Writers. Visit him at his website shaunanthonymcmichael.com.
Amethyst Review 